LA 

36 



The Contribution of Connecticut 



TO THE 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 



BY 

PAULINE WOLCOTT SPENCER 



THESIS 

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of 

the University of Pennsylvania in Partial 

Fulfilment of the Requirements 

for the degree of doctor 

of Philosophy 



PRESS OF 

THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 

LANCASTER, PA. 



The Contribution of Connecticut 



TO THE 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 



BY 

PAULINE WOLCOTT SPENCER 



THESIS 

Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of 

the University of Pennsylvania in Partial 

Fulfilment of the Requirements 

for the degree of doctor 

of Philosophy 



PRESS OF 

THE NEW ERA PRINTING COMPANY 

LANCASTER, PA. 

1915 



4 



fV 






TABLE OF CONTENTS 

Page 

Introduction i 

Chapter I. The Educational Background 6 

Chapter II. The Connecticut Intrusion 20 

Chapter III. The Educational Inheritance of the Wyoming 
Settlers. Education in Connecticut to the 
Close of the Eighteenth Century 33 

Chapter IV. Education in Wyoming 43 

Appendix 66 

Bibliography 68 



THE CONTRIBUTION OF CONNECTICUT TO 

THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM OF 

PENNSYLVANIA 



INTRODUCTION 

Of all the colonies in America, Pennsylvania was the most 
mixed in population, religion and language. Among the nation- 
alities represented were Dutch, Swedes, English, Germans, 
Scotch-Irish, Welsh, Swiss and a few French. In religion there 
were Quakers, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Catholics, Baptists, 
Lutherans, Reformed and the various other German sects 
whose number it is difficult to estimate. With all these groups 
the working out of a common educational practice was far more 
difficult and a slower process than among the homogeneous 
settlers in the New England states. Religious and consequent 
political antagonisms appear as a prominent factor in the final 
educational adjustment which was wrought out in our Common- 
wealth by the adoption in 1834-5 of a state system of common 
schools. 

The larger and dominant groups in this educational develop- 
ment were the English, including Quakers and Episcopalians, 
the Germans of the various sects and the Scotch-Irish. The 
part played by these has been studied and recorded more or 
less fully; and the debt of Pennsylvania to them and to their 
zeal for education in the beginning of our history has been 
acknowledged. A potent educational force, limited however 
to a small area, and exercised under conditions which were most 
unfavorable, appears in the group of New Englanders, largely 
people of Connecticut, in what is known as the Wyoming region 
in the northeastern part of the State about the middle of the 
eighteenth century. The steps by which in planning and 
finally carrying out their design of planting a colony in this 
region, they also attempted to introduce the educational ideals 



2 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

which they had brought from the home colony sixty years 
before the well-entrenched groups were ready to adopt a common 
school system, are worthy of a more systematic study than has 
as yet been made. Such a study should be a contribution to the 
educational history of our State not without interest, especially 
in the light which it can shed upon the better known activities 
of the previously mentioned groups. 

The history of the Wyoming invasion, the resulting conflict 
and the tragedies which it entailed have been repeatedly re- 
corded, both by the earlier historians, Chapman, Miner and 
others who drew from local sources and records, and from the 
personal narratives of actors in the occurrences described ; and 
more recently by Fisher, in "The Making of Pennsylvania," 
Chapter X, which contains a brief and spirited account of the 
New England enterprise from the time of the attempt at the 
establishment of the charter claim of Connecticut to the northern 
portion of Pennsylvania down to the final legal adjustment by 
acts of the legislature of our State early in the nineteenth century. 
Still more recently Mr. Harvey has issued two volumes of his 
"History of Wilkes-Barre " which is a scholarly and exhaustive 
study of the history of the city which "up to about the year 
1800," as Mr. Harvey says, " is really in a wide sense the history 
of the Wyoming Valley." The second volume brings the nar- 
rative down to the year 1780; a third volume is promised later. 

The educational ideals of the New Englanders and the first 
steps by which they planned to execute them in the pioneer 
community which they proposed to build up are set forth in the 
records of the Susquehanna Company, organized in Connecticut 
m r 753- The Wyoming settlers, on their arrival in Pennsyl- 
vania, immediately undertook the execution of the proposed 
plans. The records of the town meetings held by the people 
of that region from the time of their settlement there, and during 
the years in which the portion of the State claimed by Connecti- 
cut was a town and later a county of the latter State, were kept 
in the "Westmoreland Records." These manuscripts, or a 
portion of them, were consulted and quoted by Miner in his 
history. They have since in large part disappeared; only 
a fragment of them remains, now in the possession of the Wyom- 
ing Historical and Geological Society at Wilkes-Barre. For 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 3 

forty years from the time of the coming of the New Englanders 
until the final adjustment of the difficulties and the land claims 
growing out of these, the region was involved in a series of 
tragedies, including "border" warfare, Indian massacres and 
civil disorders, leading to questions of ownership and conflicts 
of authority, all of which were unfavorable both to the making 
and the preservation of records. Beside the Westmoreland 
Records, which, as above mentioned, have almost entirely dis- 
appeared, the earliest town records of Wilkes-Barre and other 
public and private documents were lost or destroyed in the dis- 
asters of 1778 and during the later difficulties between the New 
England settlers and the people of Pennsylvania. 1 Therefore 
the attempt to study any educational developments which may 
have occurred in those times of confusion and tumult meets at 
the outset the discouragement of finding few records. During 
the period intervening between the Trenton Decree and the 
adoption by the State of the common school system, there being 
no authority in education, such matters were dealt with at the 
option of local communities; and it is probable that in many 
cases records were not kept by the school committees representing 
the various townships. County and local historians have re- 
covered and preserved some township data and personal reminis- 
cences of school intentions and proceedings. The Report of 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Pennsylvania for 
1877 contains valuable historical chapters compiled by the co- 
operation of county and city superintendents, in response to the 
request of the State Superintendent. Within recent years an 
attempt has been made to collect all possible items of local 
record or reminiscence in all lines, and these have been published 
in the Wyoming Historical Record at Wilkes-Barre, under the 
editorship of the late Dr. F. C. Johnson, and in the " Proceedings 
and Collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological 
Society" in the same city. There is but a slender amount of 
material with which to make a historical study; yet in this case 
such details can be fortified by the test of inference, by reference 
to contemporary newspapers and by a comparison of the accounts 
which remain with like records of the Connecticut school author- 
ities of the time. Wickersham in his "History of Education 

1 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 25. 



4 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

in Pennsylvania" says in reference to the system of free public 
schools brought by the Connecticut settlers into the Wyoming 
Valley: "Pennsylvania as a Province had nothing to do with 
establishing them, in principle they were an advance upon the 
schools then existing in Connecticut; and in most respects were 
similar in design and management to the public schools of the 
present day." 1 Fisher says: "One characteristic those heroes 
succeeded in impressing on the land. That was the New Eng- 
land school system. One of their first acts, amid their poverty 
and misfortunes, was to make provision for public schools. All 
through their ancient records we find entries to maintain this 
institution, without which the New Englander is not of New 
England. When in the second quarter of the present century, 
the State adopted that system, it was simply extending to the 
whole commonwealth what had been in force in the Valley for 
nearly a hundred years." 2 

It is not without significance that in the great educational 
movements in our State many leaders have been men of New 
England birth. The debt of Pennsylvania to such New Eng- 
enders as Benjamin Franklin, Timothy Pickering, Thaddeus 
Stevens, Samuel Breck, Walter Johnson, John S. Hart and others 
has been acknowledged. It remains to gather up from all avail- 
able sources the facts concerning the contribution which the 
sturdy group of Connecticut pioneers made to the educational 
life of our great State in the nearly three quarters of a century 
which intervened between their coming and the adoption by the 
State of the common school system in 1834-45. 

The bibliography contains a classified list of the works and 
sources from which material has been drawn, or to which refer- 
ence has been made. The arrangement in each case is alpha- 
betical, except in the first and last classes, where it seemed 
desirable to follow the chronological order of publication. No 
marginal reference is used in the case of citations from newspapers 
where the date of publication is stated in the text. In legal 
citations the usual form of reference for such has been followed. 
The Appendix contains matter which, while not bearing directly 
on the argument, seemed of too great incidental interest to be 
omitted. 

1 Op. cit., p. 74. 

2 Op. cit., p. 316. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 5 

The writer desires to acknowledge obligation to those who 
have assisted in or contributed to the work: to the Reverend 
Dr. Horace E. Hayden, Secretary of the Wyoming Historical 
and Geological Society of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, for his 
many courtesies in affording opportunity for the use of the 
valuable collections in the possession of the Society, and for 
numerous helpful suggestions; to Mr. Oscar J. Harvey of Wilkes- 
Barre, not only for the light thrown on the study of the Wyoming 
region by his History of Wilkes-Barre, but also for the privilege 
of a personal interview which illuminated the subject and pointed 
out its limitations; to Miss Elizabeth B. Gendell, Librarian of 
the Philadelphia Normal School, for a thorough search through 
periodical literature for material bearing on the theme; and to 
the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for many privileges and 
courtesies afforded during the prosecution of the work. 

Special and grateful acknowledgment is extended to Dean 
Frank P. Graves of the School of Education of the University 
of Pennsylvania, for his interest in the work and for suggestions 
and corrections in the manuscript; and finally, but by no means 
least of all to Dr. A. Duncan Yocum, Chairman of the Depart- 
ment of Education of the University of Pennsylvania, under 
whose sympathetic supervision, constant encouragement and 
numerous wise and practical suggestions the work was begun 
and has been carried to completion. 

Pauline Wolcott Spencer. 
University of Pennsylvania, 
May 20, 1915. 



CHAPTER I 
THE EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND 

A Brief Survey of the Elementary Education Conducted by the 
Leading Nationalities and Religious Sects in Pennsylvania 

The democracy of America is sustained by the public school 
supported by the State, and free to all. The public school pro- 
viding a universal education had its origin in the Reformation. 
Its basis was the idea that each individual must be capable of 
reading the Scriptures, and of making a rational application of 
religious doctrine to his own eternal welfare. 1 The great educa- 
tional leaders in the movement were Luther, Calvin and Knox. 
The influence of Luther was supreme in Germany, while that of 
Calvin was stronger in the Protestant parts of France and 
Switzerland, in Holland and England. 2 Knox's field of course 
was Scotland. The Puritans in England and in America were 
under Calvin's sway. Luther announced in the famous "Ad- 
dress to the Mayors and Councilmen of all the German Cities" 
in 1524 that "for the maintenance of civil order schools are 
necessary, and the civil authorities are under obligation to com- 
pel the people to send their children to school." 3 The doctrines 
of Calvin contained a similar implication. It was Protestantism, 
the desire for religious freedom, that brought the Pilgrims and 
Puritans to Massachusetts and the Quakers to Pennsylvania. 
It was inevitable, therefore, that in these and other states so 
colonized, this idea of universal popular education supported 
by the state should find early expression. 

Since in Pennsylvania there were so many diverse factors 
and warring elements engaged in working out the political and 
educational policies of the future, the educational ideas and 
activities of the leading groups should be briefly summed up. 
The Dutch, although the first comers to Penn's future province, 

1 Monroe: Text Book in the History of Education, p. 407. 

2 Fiske: Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America, Vol. I., p. 33. 

3 Painter: Luther on Education, p. 65. 

6 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 7 

were numerically unimportant; nevertheless they represented the 
nation which earliest of all the European states is held to have 
made literacy common to all, even the peasants, and to have 
established a system of public schools. Guicciardini, the Flor- 
entine historian, is said to have stated that before 1540 the 
peasants in Holland could commonly read and write their own 
language, and that free schools, supported by public taxes, were 
the subject of legislation at various times during the sixteenth 
century. 1 From an earlier date the Dutch were interested in the 
public control and support of education, and a number of cities 
maintained schools. 2 Salaries of the schoolmasters were some- 
times paid from the town treasury, sometimes from church 
funds sequestered from the church orders at the Reformation. 3 
Owing to the many religious differences and to the attempt on 
the part of the Calvinists to dominate the state, religious and 
secular authorities worked against each other. 4 By the middle 
of the seventeenth century throughout the country, both cities 
and rural districts were provided with schools of various grades, 
controlled and often supported by the public secular author- 
ities. 5 The children of the poor were taught gratuitously. 6 
Girls appear to have been admitted to the elementary schools 
with the boys, although excluded from the privileges of higher 
education. 7 

The view has been frequently advanced that Holland furnished 
to both Calvinistic New England and Quaker Pennsylvania the 
ideal of the public school. Wickersham says: "It was during 
their twelve years' sojourn in Holland that the Pilgrim Fathers 
obtained the germs of that system of education which has made 
New England so famous in our educational history; and it was 
in Holland, too, almost certainly, that William Penn learned 
those broad principles of educational policy that are embodied in 
the first Frame he constructed for the government of his Province, 

1 Fiske: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 18. See also Kilpatrick: The Dutch Schools 
of New Netherland and Colonial New York. 

2 Kilpatrick: Op. cit., p. 20. 

3 Ibid., p. 27. 

4 Ibid., pp. 21, 24. 
6 Ibid., p. 21. 

6 Ibid., pp. 20, 21, 24. 

7 Ibid., p. 30. 



8 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

and that he endeavored to have incorporated in laws for the 
benefit of the people." 1 Eggleston traces the Dutch law of the 
Synod of Dort in 1618 to the scheme proposed fifty years earlier 
by John Knox in his "Book of Discipline." 2 But fifty years 
prior to that date (161 8) the reformers in Holland had begun to 
care for schools and schoolmasters. 3 Fiske holds that not the 
example of Holland, but fundamentally the principles of Cal- 
vinism furnished the motive power which led to the movement in 
behalf of universal and compulsory education in the sixteenth 
and seventeenth centuries in the Protestant portions of Europe. 4 

The Swedes were the next comers to Pennsylvania. At home 
as in other Protestant countries, educational activities were 
carried on by the co-operation of Church and State authorities. 
The Swedish government was not neglectful of the educational 
interests of the colony on the Delaware. 5 Neither Dutch nor 
Swedes, however, were important factors in the educational de- 
velopment of Pennsylvania, since numerically they were not 
strong and were soon overshadowed by the more numerous and 
powerful groups. 

With the grant of the territory to Penn and the establish- 
ment on Pennsylvania soil of the Quaker province, Penn gave im- 
mediate attention to the question of education. In the well- 
known Preface to the Frame of Government written in England in 
1682 he says: "That therefore which makes a good constitution 
must keep it, namely, men of wisdom and virtue, qualities that 
because they descend not with worldly inheritance must be 
carefully propagated by a virtuous education of youth." 6 This 
Frame contained the following educational provision: "Twelfth, 
that the Governor and Provincial Council shall erect and order 
all public schools, and encourage and reward the authors of 
useful sciences and laudable inventions in the said Province." 7 

1 Wickersham: History of Education in Pennsylvania, p. 4. 

2 Eggleston: Transit of Civilization, p. 232. Cf. Kilpatrick: op. cit., 
p. 20. 

3 Ibid., p. 19. 

4 Fiske: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 33. 
6 Wickersham: Op. cit., p. 7. 

6 Charter to William Penn and Laws of the Province of Pennsylvania, 

P-93- 

7 Ibid., p. 95. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 9 

A Committee of Manners, Education and Arts was to be appoint- 
ed, that improper conduct might be suppressed and the youth 
trained in virtue and useful knowledge and arts. 1 Puritan and 
Quaker alike looked upon the school as a vital element in the 
State. In the "Great Law" adopted by the first Assembly 
held at Chester after Penn's arrival the following provision was 
included: "That the laws of this Province from time to time 
shall be published and printed, that every person may have the 
knowledge thereof ; and they shall be one of the books taught in 
the schools of the Province and Territories thereof. 2 A sub- 
sequent addition was made in a later Frame adopted the follow- 
ing year, which made compulsory upon parents and guardians 
the instruction of children in letters and industrial skill, and 
such instruction was to be universal, alike for rich and poor. 3 
Ten years later under Governor Fletcher this law was modified 
and practically nullified by requiring such instruction to be 
given only by those having sufficient estate and ability to do so. 4 
In the Frame of Government drawn up in 1696 by Deputy Gov- 
ernor Markham and accepted by the Assembly, the educational 
provisions which had been contained in the charters of 1682 and 
1683, but omitted from the Petition of Right of 1693, were 
renewed. 5 

The founder of our Commonwealth had undoubtedly the idea 
of a universal and compulsory education. The religious belief 
of the Friends implied a democracy. All men stood on common 
ground; titles and rank had no significance; even the priestly 
order was abolished, and the time-honored distinction between 
clergyman and layman was swept aside. It may be possible 
that by the elimination of the clergyman who had during cen- 
turies of mediaeval development represented the educational 
ideal of the old world the Quaker was unwittingly taking the 
first steps toward the discouragement of popular education, and 
the lowering of popular intellectual standards. This may 
sound like a paradox, but when the development of Quaker 

1 Ibid., p. 96. 

2 Ibid., p. 123. 
J Ibid., p. 142. 
4 Ibid., p. 238. 

6 Clews: Educational Legislation and Administration, p. 283. (Cf. 
Charters and Laws, p. 251.) 



io The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

ideals in Pennsylvania is compared with that of the New England 
basic conception, and the logical and inevitable sequences of 
both are laid side by side, its truth will probably be admitted. 

The first school in the province appears to have been one 
established in 1683 in which such children were taught as had 
parents who were able and willing to pay the specific sums 
which were agreed upon by the Governor and Council and the 
teacher, Enoch Flower, for instruction in the various branches. 
No provision was made for those who had not the means to 
pay. 1 But Penn had in mind the establishment of a school of 
higher grade, and also of giving educational opportunity to more 
than a favored few. Clarkson 2 says that in 1689 Penn instructed 
Thomas Lloyd "to set up a public grammar school." This was 
effected by the establishment of the "William Penn Charter 
School," first chartered in 1697. By the phrase "public gram- 
mar school" it is generally supposed that Penn had in mind a 
school similar to the type so designated in England. Much 
discussion has centered about the significance of the term, also 
of "free school" often used. The question is of interest in 
determining just what the colonial founders meant, not only 
Penn, but also the New England colonists when they spoke of a 
"grammar school," a "free school," or a "public school." 
By the phrase "public grammar school" Penn was probably 
thinking of an institution of the sort with which he was familiar 
at home. Towns in England established such schools and pro- 
vided in various ways for their support, a mode which was 
effective in New England from the outset. Even in the Middle 
Ages a sense of municipal responsibility for the support of 
schools was found in England, Scotland and Germany. 3 The 

1 Wickersham : Op. cit., p. 41. 

2 Clarkson: Life of Penn, p. 209. 

At a meeting of the Council in 1697, a petition was presented from a 
number of Quakers, who affirmed that many desired that a school should be 
set up in Philadelphia where poor children might be freely maintained, taught 
and educated in good literature, until they were fit to be put out as appren- 
tices, or capable of being masters or ushers in the school. All children and 
servants, male and female, were to be admitted to this "public school," the 
rich at reasonable rates, and the poor for nothing (Clews, op. cit., pp. 284, 
285). The school was probably already in existence and was probably 
chartered in response to this petition (Ibid., p. 286). 

3 Brown: The Making of our Middle Schools, p. 43. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania i i 

idea of provision for education by local authorities developed 
in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the history 
of state aid in education dates from about this time. 1 Dr. 
Brown quotes Christopher Wase, an Oxford man, who writing 
in 1678, stated that "there are of late Grammar Schools founded 
and endowed in almost every Market Town of England in which 
the children of the town are to receive instruction free of charge. " 2 
The term "public school," as is well known, applies in England 
today to similar schools founded and endowed either by a private 
individual, a corporation or a municipality. Eton and Rugby 
are famous "public schools." The term "grammar school" 
indicated the grade as secondary, not elementary, at least 
theoretically (practically the pupils often had still to master 
the elements of instruction) ; and the curriculum as including 
the classical languages, particularly Latin. 3 Such schools were 
often called "free schools," and the exact interpretation of this 
term is naturally the crux of the discussion. It has been held to 
mean not a school in which instruction was necessarily given to 
all without fee, for this was not the case; but a school "free" 
or open to the public, free also from the jurisdiction of any 
superior institution, for a "free," i. e., a liberal education, 4 
tuition in the classics only being free. 5 Dr. Brown 6 quotes 
Leach as "giving the latest and perhaps the last word on the 
subject." Leach discusses at length some suggested interpre- 
tations, dismisses them and arrives at the following conclusion: 
" It is impossible if the phrase is regarded in its historical develop- 
ment . . . that it could have meant anything but what it was 
popularly supposed to mean, — a school free from payment of 
tuition fees. Entrance fees and all sorts of extras and luxuries, 
such as fires, light, candles, stationery, cleaning, whipping, 
might have to be paid for ; but a free school meant undoubtedly 
a school in which, because of endowment, all or some of the scho- 
lars, the poor or the inhabitants of the place, or a certain number, 

1 Monroe: Cyclopaedia of Education, Vol. II, p. 431. 

2 Brown: Op. cit., p. 25. 

3 Brown: Op. cit., p. 20. 

4 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, p. 1168, 
Note 3. 

5 Barnard: Journal of Education, Vol. XVI, p. 402, note. 

6 Op. cit., p. 31. 



12 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

were freed from fees for teaching." 1 Dr. Brown calls this "a 
clear and carefully guarded statement, and adds that in our 
early colonial period a 'free school' was generally one in which 
school fees were regularly paid by all but the poorest pupils; 
moreover it was a school of secondary grade, that is a Latin 
grammar school." 2 

One further comment may be added concerning the use of the 
word "public" in England as describing such schools. In their 
origin, as the history of English education shows, they represent 
the popular development in education which attended the 
Renaissance. Renaissance and Reformation were closely allied 
movements in Northern and Protestant Europe. The revival 
of classical learning in England and Germany was associated with 
the new attitude in religion; and the people, or "public," as 
distinct from the clergy, were now to be provided with education 
in classical learning and religion. Municipal, corporate, private 
or royal endowment, including free tuition for the poor, following 
the example of the church schools of the mediaeval period, 3 
now provided education generously for the people. 

This question has been discussed at length at this point be- 
cause it is of interest not only in determining the kind of school 
that Penn had in mind in his suggested plan for his Province, but 
also because it relates equally to the intentions of the New Eng- 
land colonists in the beginning of their educational foundations. 
It is to be especially noted, however, that the charter of Penn's 
school of 1 701, the first actually on record, placed the manage- 
ment in the hands of the Monthly Meeting, and the later one 
of 1708, took its direction from that body and appointed a 
Board of Overseers, "fifteen discreet and religious Friends," 
to assume control. 4 It thus became a private or denominational 
institution, and so continues at the present time. Branch char- 
ity schools of elementary grade were established in different 
parts of the city, and these continued to exist for more than a 
hundred and fifty years, and provided an education for the poor 

1 Leach: English Schools at the Reformation, pp. 110-114. 

2 Op. cit., p. 32. 

3 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Chapter 
XXIV, p. 1 168, Note B. cf. Barnard, Journal of Education, Vol. I, pp. 298, 
299 note. 

4 Wickersham: op. cit., p. 44. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 13 

when as yet there was no public school system in our modern 
sense, and even after there was. Some of them were free, some 
charged for tuition, and both boys and girls were taught. 1 It 
will thus be seen that in the practical working out of Penn's 
plans for a universal education the English ideal, with its aristo- 
cratic social tendencies, rather than that of Puritan New England 
appears from the first. With the development of popular 
education in England from the time of Elizabeth to the nine- 
teenth century the principle prevailed that it was not the funct- 
ion of the State to provide or enforce education. The Church 
or individuals might make charitable provision for the poor. 
England had therefore not accepted, when Pennsylvania was 
founded, the ideal of the universal and compulsory education 
maintained by the State, as proclaimed by Luther and Calvin; 
but still adhered to the older religious and social ideal, which 
established under the Protestant dispensation schools for in- 
struction in liberal knowledge and religion in which the poor 
were to be taught free. From the founding of the William 
Penn Charter School until after the close of the third decade 
of the nineteenth century Pennsylvania adhered to the plan of a 
free education for those who could not afford to pay for it, while 
the ideals of Penn, which might have worked out into something 
more like the democratic arrangements of Puritan New England, 
were suppressed by a reversion to those of the mother-country. 
Penn himself may have realized the impracticability of enforcing 
his ideal in the clash of sectarian and governmental policies 
which followed the rapid growth of the colony. Perhaps he 
saw that the logical application of the theory of popular education 
would endanger the foundations of the provincial structure 
which he had reared. 2 His Charter of Privileges of 1701 con- 
tains no educational provision. 3 "Little affecting the interests 
of education can be found on record emanating from the Pro- 
prietor, the Governor, the Provincial Council or the General 
Assembly from Penn's time to the breaking out of the Revolu- 
tion." 4 

1 Graves: History of Education in Modern Times, p. 99. 

2 Report U. S. Commissioner of Education, 1893-4, Vol. I, p. 701. 

3 Liberty Bell Leaflets, No. 3. 

4 Wickersham: op. cit., p. 52. 



14 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

As the state relinquished the original design of the founder 
for providing and compelling education, the work was taken up 
by the various religious bodies. In 1712 an act was passed by 
the Assembly enabling Protestant religious societies to hold 
property for religious and educational purposes. This was re- 
pealed by the Queen's Council the following year. 1 A similar 
act was passed in 17 15 but again rejected by the English govern- 
ment, and repealed by the Lords Justices in Council in 1719. 2 
In 1730 a law was again enacted similarly enabling Protestant 
religious societies to hold property for educational purposes. 
This was apparently never considered by the Crown but allowed 
to become a law by the lapse of time in accordance with the 
Proprietary Charter. 3 The reasons for this sequence to the 
original broad-minded plan of Penn for a democratic and univer- 
sal education are to be found in the political and religious con- 
flicts which attended the development of the Commonwealth, 
resulting from the great diversity of interests which it contained. 
Penn had offered a free asylum to men of all religious beliefs 
and had founded a democracy. As was inevitable at that date, 
the result was a struggle for supremacy on the part of the leading 
groups which disturbed the theoretical harmony which was the 
basis of the structure. From the middle of the eighteenth cen- 
tury the Quakers were unable to maintain a dominant position, 
and with the Revolution and its determined military resistance 
to English tyranny the Quaker supremacy was lost. 

The various religious sects were devoted to their ecclesiastical 
views and most of them were active in education. The Friends 
conducted schools in meeting-houses or in schoolhouses con- 
nected with them. Money was raised by subscription, legacies 
and contributions; endowments were provided and the poor 
were liberally assisted. These schools were often open to all the 
children of a neighborhood, irrespective of creed. Institutions 
of higher than elementary grade were founded, and the training 
of teachers was encouraged. 4 The Episcopalian congregations 
also established schools in connection with their churches, show- 

1 Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania, Vol. II, p. 424. 

2 Ibid., Vol. Ill, pp. 37, 440. 

3 Ibid., Vol. IV, pp. 209, 210. 

4 Wickersham: op. cit., pp. 80-94. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 15 

ing too, a liberal policy in admitting children of other creeds 
in the neighborhood and interesting themselves in higher, as 
well as in elementary and religious education. 1 

The Germans who came to Pennsylvania, like the other sects, 
because they found here an opportunity to establish civil and 
religious liberty, were devout people and usually brought with 
them when they came in numbers, clergymen and schoolmasters. 
The first public building erected by these communities was 
ordinarily used both as church and schoolhouse. Where they 
had one for each purpose they generally stood side by side. By 
the middle of the eighteenth century the Germans formed more 
than one third of the population, but they were scattered and 
isolated and they lacked religious organization. In spite of 
the fact that many of their leaders were learned men, and that 
their ministers and schoolmasters made creditable attempts 
to maintain schools for their congregations, educational facilities 
were inadequate and the more thoughtful among them saw with 
dismay that illiteracy was increasing. Even churches were 
insufficient in number. 2 An appeal sent to the Lutheran and 
Reformed congregations in the mother-country brought a re- 
sponse in the sending of clergymen and money to aid the cause 
of religion and education in America. 3 An organization was 
formed in London in 1753 called "The Society for the Propaga- 
tion of Christian Knowledge among the Germans in Pennsyl- 
vania." 4 In addition to the original religious motives for the 
work among the Germans, political considerations were added, 
and the desirability of providing education in the English 
language for the German population, in order to make them more 
thoroughgoing English subjects appealed to the people of England 
who were interested in the plan. Through the endeavors of 
Dr. Smith, the first Provost of the College and Academy of the 
City of Philadelphia, afterward the University of Pennsylvania, 
contributions were secured from the Society for the Propagation 
of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, from royalty as well as from other 
individuals and a board of trustees in the colony was appointed. 5 

1 Ibid., p. 98. 

2 Wickersham: Op. cit., p. 129. 

3 Ibid., pp. 130-134. 

4 Weber: The Charity School Movement in Colonial Pennsylvania, p. 25. 

5 Ibid., p. 30. 



1 6 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

This plan involved a more general aim than was implied in its 
original purpose. The Society proposed to educate children of 
all denominations, and those of English, as well as of German 
parentage. The fact that State officials were trustees in the move- 
ment has caused it to be spoken of as the first general system of 
public instruction in Pennsylvania. 1 The history of the latter part 
of the movement is closely identified with that of the University 
of Pennsylvania, as most of the Trustees of the charitable scheme, 
including Dr. Smith and Benjamin Franklin, were connected 
with that institution, 2 whose origin goes back to 1740, and to a 
building constructed for the charitable education of poor chil- 
dren. 3 The Society continued its work for ten years, when its 
support became irregular, and the funds remaining after the 
close of the schools in 1764 were applied to the Charity Schools 
maintained by the University. The influence of this institution 
and especially of Franklin, its founder, on the educational life 
of the state, would be matter for a volume and beyond the limits 
of this chapter. 

The actual scope of the work accomplished by the Charitable 
Society was somewhat broader than was indicated in their de- 
signs, with the religious and political motives that lay beneath 
these. In some quarters they stimulated local initiative for 
education of an unsectarian kind, and therefore led to the 
growth of "neighborhood schools" which represented a transition 
to the ultimate common school. A manuscript in the Historical 
Society of Pennsylvania records that a number of persons at 
Easton on July 31, 1755, "being duly sensible of the great 
advantages our posterity may reap from the excellent Charitable 
Scheme lately formed in England for the education of Protestant 
youth," engaged with a number of Deputy Trustees appointed 
by the Trustees general, "to pay the sum of money and do and 
perform the works, labour and service in the building and erecting 
of a School-House which may occasionally be made use of as a 
church for any Protestant minister." The document is signed 
by sixteen persons and states the amount and kind of labor or 

1 Ibid., p. 41. 

2 Ibid., p. 55. 

3 Clews: Op. cit., p. 300. Cf. Montgomery: A History of the University of 
Pennsylvania, p. no. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 17 

materials which each will contribute, such as digging, carting, 
so many days' work or weeks' work, shingles, sashlights, stone, 
etc. William Smith on behalf of the Trustees, promised thirty 
pounds. 1 The readiness for religious co-operation is to be noted. 
Another similar manuscript is preserved in the same collection 
a petition to the Trustees general of the Charity Scheme from 
"divers poor Germans settled in and about Easton, of Lutheran, 
Reformed and other Protestant religions, who are entirely des- 
titute of Ministers and Schoolmasters, . . . and fearful of 
having their children grow up in a Protestant country without 
the Knowledge and Benefit for want of a School all being new 
settlers and poor, . . . have laid aside all religious differences 
and asked to be made sharers in the Charitable Scheme. " They 
asked for an allowance toward building a suitable schoolhouse 
and paying a pious, sober English schoolmaster; they promised 
to do and even exceed all that can be expected from people in 
their low condition. 2 

The numerous German sects were undoubtedly zealous in 
education as in religion, and there were many learned men 
among them. The Moravians were active and enlightened in 
education of all grades, and in missionary enterprises. They 
had endeavored at first to establish "union" schools in various 
places, but by 1754 these had been given up and they confined 
their educational efforts to children of their own people. 3 

The Scotch-Irish were to the west of the other groups and on 
the frontier. These people made a significant contribution to 
education both of elementary and higher grade. They had 
brought with them from home the intense Calvinistic conviction 
of the value of sound and liberal scholarship, and especially 
the desire for an educated ministry, the ideal which, strong in 
New England, had been rejected by the Quakers. Nor were they 
lacking in energy to pursue this purpose in the pioneer conditions 
on which they had entered. The church and the schoolhouse 
were close neighbors, as with the other sects; but since the 
Calvinistic idea never lost its emphasis on the "state" or civil 

1 Miscellaneous MSS., 1727-1758, Northampton County, Pa., p. 159 in 
Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 

2 Ibid., p. 161, indexed as "The Lower Saucon Petition for a Free School. " 

3 Weber: Op. cit., p. 21. 



1 8 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

ideal in education, their views as to the purpose of the school 
became more liberal, helped too, by the frontier life which 
tended to break down the older prejudices. They too were in- 
fluential in establishing schools generally in their communities 
and in maintaining instruction of a liberal and practical charac- 
ter. 1 

The long and detailed catalogue of the educational activities 
of the numerous religious bodies in Pennsylvania is not within 
the scope of this chapter, nor is that of the higher schools, 
academies, and colleges founded by them or by private individuals. 
The aim has been to summarize the conditions under which 
elementary education had developed in the Province under the 
fostering care of the leading groups of its people. 

Speaking generally it may be said that in towns and in more 
thickly settled regions the sectarian schools were firmly en- 
trenched. In the outlying districts, on the frontier where such fac- 
ilities did not exist it was inevitable that the people of a neighbor- 
hood should be drawn together by their common educational 
needs for their children. This spirit developed rapidly after 
the Revolution, which broke down the barriers and united the 
people more closely in a common aim for the welfare of all. 
In this connection reference may be made to an unsectarian 
association which was formed in 1791 in Philadelphia called 
"The First Day or Sunday School Society." The aim was to 
provide an elementary education for poor children, especially 
such as were employed during the week. 2 The Society applied 
to the Legislature for aid, and the question of schools for the 
people supported in part by taxation was broached. The Quakers 
opposed the plan, and it failed. 3 The idea that the education of 
the poor was a philanthropy, emanating from the religious spirit, 
not a civic obligation, was firmly grounded in the province, and 
continued to be a controlling principle in educational legislation 
and in the practice of the greater portion of the State until the 
nineteenth century was well under way. Nor had this sectarian 
and charitable education proved its right to existence in the 
century following its establishment. "In 1775 not only was 

1 Wickersham: Op. cit., pp. 104-114. 

2 Graves: Op. cit., p. 52. 

3 McMaster: History of the People of the United States, Vol. II, pp. 84, 85. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 19 

the number of scholarly men in the province small, but compara- 
tively few grown persons could do more than read, write and 
calculate according to the elementary rules of arithmetic, and 
many remained wholly illiterate." 1 Educationally speaking 
this was the State into which just before the Revolution a new 
group, small in numbers, but strong in persistence and courage, 
were to fight their way and take up their abode, bringing with 
them the clear convictions and well thought-out ideals of the 
common school as established in their New England home, 
ultimately to identify themselves and their conception with 
the great Commonwealth of their adoption. 

1 Wickersham: Op. cit., p. 255. Cf. Report, U. S. Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, 1895-96, Vol. I, p. 256. 



CHAPTER II 
THE CONNECTICUT INTRUSION 

A digression must be made at this point to review the events 
which led to the foundation of the civic and educational life of the 
Connecticut colony, and to the settlement of a group of these 
people in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, known as the 
Wyoming region; and their energetic and finally successful 
struggle with the Proprietaries to secure that attractive territory. 

On November 3, 1620, James I granted a patent to the Ply- 
mouth Company, numbering forty noblemen, knights and gentle- 
men, for a territory from forty to forty-eight degrees north lati- 
tude and from sea to sea, this being the general charter of New 
England. 1 In 1630 the Plymouth Company are said to have sold 
to their President, the Earl of Warwick, that part of their grant 
which includes the present state of Connecticut. This patent 
is not of record and is probably purely mythical. 2 On March 
19, 1631, the Earl of Warwick granted to William, Viscount 
Say and Seal, Robert, Lord Brooke, and others to the number 
of eleven, the part of New England which extends "from the 
Narragansett River for forty leagues upon a straight line near 
the seashore towards the southwest, west and by south or west as 
the coast lieth toward Virginia, and extending from the western 
ocean to the south sea." This admittedly vague grant is the 
original patent of Connecticut. 3 

The region about the Connecticut River was visited by men 
of the Plymouth colony in 1631 and 1632. 4 The next year 
Plymouth invited the Massachusetts colony to join her in 
establishing trade and in keeping off the Dutch. The first part 
of the invitation, at least, was declined. But the future founders 
of Connecticut pursued their enterprise with characteristic 
energy, several vessels going for trade and some Dorchester 

1 Trumbull: History of Connecticut, Vol. I, p. 20. 

2 Johnston: Connecticut, p. 9. 

3 Trumbull: Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 27, 28. Cf. Appendix, p. 495. 

4 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 29, 30. 

20 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 21 

men going overland in 1633. The same year William Holmes 
of Plymouth and a small company established a trading post on 
the Connecticut River at the present site of Windsor. 1 Soon 
afterward the company of Lord Say and Seal and Lord Brooke 
were stirred to action, and Saybrook was established in 1635 under 
their auspices by a party of Boston men with John Winthrop, Jr., 
as leader. 2 

In the meantime, while these sturdy adventurers were leading 
the way into the wilderness and opening up new sites for homes, 
religious and political differences were splitting up the various 
settlements. The aristocratic and theocratic ideas so strong 
in the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies were vigorously 
opposed by groups of people in Dorchester, Watertown and 
Newtown. The Massachusetts policy was the limitation of the 
elective franchise and office holding to church members. 3 The 
result was the settlement by a migration of the "opposition," 
of Wethersfield by Watertown people, of Hartford largely by 
Newtown people and of Windsor by Dorchester men. These 
events occurred in 1634 and 1635. 4 The new towns were under 
the jurisdiction of Massachusetts for a time, but a legislature 
made up of magistrates and deputies from each town met at 
Hartford, May 1, 1637, and the separate existence of Connecticut 
had begun. 5 On May 31, 1638, Mr. Hooker, the former New- 
town pastor, preached a sermon which "contained the funda- 
mental idea of the Connecticut Constitution," adopted the 
following year. 6 It was the first written Constitution known 
to history that created a government, 7 and "Hartford is the 
birthplace of American democracy." 8 The town was the unit 
of government and was the basis of the development of the 
Commonwealth; and since the towns represented previously 
completely organized churches, church government and town 

1 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 33-35- 

2 Ibid., Vol. I, 60-61. 

3 Johnston: Op. cit., p. 18. 

4 Trumbull: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 60. Cf. Johnston: Op. cit., pp. 22-24. 
6 Trumbull: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 79. 

6 Johnston: Op. cit., p. 71. 

7 Fiske: Beginnings of New England, p. 127. 

8 Johnston: Op. cit., p. 73. 



22 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

government were strictly co-incident. 1 The congregational 
system, moreover, under which they were organized arose in the 
mother country, and with it the first foundations of their educa- 
tional systems were laid. The three churches of Windsor, 
Hartford and Wethersfield were gathered antecedently to their 
settlement in Connecticut, "and it does not appear that they 
were ever re-gathered. " The organization of the churches in the 
mother country in conformity with the custom of the Reformed 
faith, included not only a pastor proper, but an additional min- 
ister with the function of teacher, who had the oversight of the 
doctrinal defense of the church, and took charge of the instruction 
of the people. 2 Thus the Connecticut settlers carried with them 
from the Massachusetts jurisdiction the essential beginning 
of their system of public instruction for the citizens of the democ- 
racy which they were about establish. The colony of New 
Haven, founded in 1638, one year after its establishment, took 
similar steps toward laying secure educational foundations, 
and these two colonies began therefore one of the first public 
school systems in the world's history. 3 The educational develop- 
ments arising from these important beginnings are to be con- 
sidered later. 

With the accession of Charles II the Connecticut people 
sought and received a charter, which gave to the colonies a 
corporate existence, "and a legal sanction to the community 
which had already been established by popular will." 4 By the 
charter the colony was to include "all that part of the New 
England dominion in America bordered on the east by the Nar- 
ragansett River commonly called the Narragansett Bay, where 
the said river falleth into the sea, and on the north by the line of 
the Massachusetts plantation, and on the south by the sea; and 
in longitude as the line of the Massachusetts colony running 
from east to west ; that is to say from the said Narragansett Bay 
on the east to the south sea on the west part, with the Islands 
thereunto adjoining." 5 The limits of the charter grant thus 

1 Ibid., p. 59. 

2 Trumbull: Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 23, 26. 

3 Bureau of Education Circular of Information, No. 2, 1893. Steiner, 
The History of Education in Connecticut, Introduction. 

4 Johnston: Op. cit., p. 166. 

5 Trumbull: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 249. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 23 

included the territory in which the colony of New Haven was 
situated ; and as was customary in most early patents, dominion 
over the land west to the Pacific Ocean. The charter to Con- 
necticut was followed in 1664 by the grant of the New Nether- 
lands province, including New Jersey and part of New England, 
to the Duke of York. This was interpreted by Connecticut as 
interrupting but not terminating her claim west of the New 
Netherlands grant. 1 

Nineteen years after the grant of the Connecticut charter, in 
1 68 1 William Penn received from Charles his grant of Pennsyl- 
vania, thus establishing a counter claim to that part of the prov- 
ince already claimed by Connecticut, almost a third of the 
northern portion of the present state. Penn took the precaution 
to secure a release from the Duke of York of any right which the 
latter had to his Pennsylvania grant. 2 But the question of 
ownership of this territory became a vital one in the development 
of the future state of Pennsylvania, and led to a series of tragic 
events resulting from the tenacity with which the Connecticut 
people insisted on what they claimed as their charter rights, 
and pursued their plans for settlement outside of their immediate 
territorial limits. It brought to the two states legal controversy 
as well as warfare, and the problems which were not finally 
adjusted until after the opening of the nineteenth century. 

In the period following the grant of his province to Penn until 
about the middle of the eighteenth century Connecticut was 
growing in population, increasing the number of her towns, 
and taking up the "land that was fit for planting." 3 What re- 
mained was calculated rather to develop energy, perseverance 
under difficulties, and stern moral fibre than to hold out alluring 
prospects of easy returns for human labor. By 1762 all the soil 
had been laid out in townships, and after that new towns were 
laid out from those already existing. 4 About this time the people 
turned to the fairer land of promise toward the western part of 
their charter claim. Exploring parties went from 1750 each 
season through the wilderness and reported the charms and 

1 Fisher: Making of Pennsylvania, p. 239. 

2 Ibid., p. 27. 

3 Johnston: Op. cit., p. 266. 

4 Ibid., p. 271. 



24 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

beauties of the Wyoming country to those at home. 1 The first 
route by which the Delaware and Susquehanna were connected 
is said to have been over an Indian path leading from Cochecton 
in New York on the Delaware across the Moosic mountain to a 
point near the present site of Scran ton, thence into the Wyoming 
valley. 2 The wagon road from the Hudson valley led to this trail 
because it was the most direct route from Connecticut to Wyom- 
ing. 

These longings now crystallized into a definite attempt to 
colonize the Wyoming region, thus making it in fact as well as in 
theory a portion of the home colony. The originators of this 
scheme are unknown, but it was soon published and discussed 
in several townships of Windham county. 3 In 1753 the Sus- 
quehanna Company was formed consisting of six hundred and 
seventy-three persons, ten of whom were Pennsylvanians, and the 
rest people of New England, principally of Connecticut, who 
had formed themselves into an association for the purpose of 
planting a colony in that territory. They had already laid 
their plans before the General Assembly of Connecticut, stating 
their desire to settle on the Susquehanna within the charter 
limits of the colony of Connecticut, no English inhabitants 
living in the land, the tract containing sixteen miles square on 
both sides of the river. Their plan was to purchase it from the 
Indians, and in case they should be able to hold and possess the 
land they promised to live always under the laws and discipline 
of the home colony, provided that the subscribers should settle 
the territory and lay it out in equal proportion within three years. 4 
Commissioners were sent during the same year to explore the 

1 Peck: History of Wyoming, pp. 14, 17. 

2 Egle: History of Pennsylvania, p. 1 148. 

3 Hoyt: Brief of a Title, p. II. 

4 Ibid., pp. 12, 13. 

Note: In the development of new towns in Connecticut it was usual for 
a speculator to buy land from the Indians, with the approval of the General 
Assembly. As soon as the rates became sufficiently large to need the exten- 
sion of the Assembly's taxing power over the community a committee was 
appointed by that body to bound out the town; it was then in order to choose 
constables and send delegates to the Assembly. Clark: History of Connecti- 
cut, p. 196. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 25 

region and establish a friendly relation with the Indians. 1 The 
project soon spread through the colony and residents of several 
counties were received into membership in the company. 2 The 
price of shares increased rapidly. 3 The company proposed 
subsequently to apply to the King for a charter of government, 
first securing by purchase frdm the Six Nations the Indian title 
to the land. At a general treaty of the Indians with the colonies 
held at Albany on July 11, 1754, the Susquehanna Company 
purchased from the Indians a tract of land described in the deed 
as "beginning from the one and fortieth degree of north latitude 
at ten miles east of the Susquehanna River and from thence 
with a northward line ten miles east of the River to the forty- 
second or beginning of the forty-third degree of north latitude, 
and so on to extend west two degrees of longitude one hundred 
and twenty miles, and from thence south to the beginning of the 
forty-second degree and from thence east to the above-mentioned 
boundary which is ten miles east of the Susquehanna River." 4 
This deed granted the Pennsylvania territory to six hundred and 
ninety-four persons, of whom six hundred and thirty-eight were 
from Connecticut, thirty- three from Rhode Island, ten from 
Pennsylvania, five from Massachusetts and eight from New 
York. 5 The purchase included the Wyoming Valley and the 
country westward as far as a line extending through the present 
McKean County (including the eastern portion of the county) 
and continuing through Elk and Clearfield County. 6 The name 
Wyoming was subsequently used in two senses; in the limited 
sense, it meant the valley twenty miles in length and three to 
four in width; but in a larger usage it referred to all of the ter- 
ritory included in the Susquehanna purchase and later claimed 
by Connecticut, extending westward as above indicated. 7 The 
country lying between the line running ten miles east of the 
Susquehanna and Delaware River was later purchased informally 
by another association called at first the Delaware Company, 

1 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XVIII, p. 15. 

2 Ibid., p. 16. 

3 Larned: History of Windham County, Vol. I, p. 558. 

4 Chapman: Sketch of the History of Wyoming, p. 55. 
6 Hoyt: Op. cit., p. 13. 

6 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. II, map: p. 790. 

7 Miner: Op. cit., Introduction, p. xi. 



26 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

later the Connecticut-Delaware Company. 1 Pennsylvania tried 
ineffectually to prevent the sale to the Susquehanna Company, 
and communications with reference to the matter passed between 
the governors of the two colonies. The attention of the Connecti- 
cut authorities was called to a deed of 1736 in which the Indians 
had engaged to sell all the lands of Pennsylvania to William 
Penn and to no one else. But the numbers in the company 
were increasing, prices of shares were rising, and in 1755 the 
Company applied to the legislature of Connecticut asking their 
concurrence in a request to the King for a charter for a new 
colonial government in the limits of their purchase. The 
legislature passed a resolution approving of the measure, and 
recommending the Company to the King's favor. 2 The King, 
however, never acted favorably on their petition. 3 In the spring 
or summer of this year (1755) some of the proprietors of the 
company visited Wyoming, with a view to planning for the 
settlement. 4 The Delaware Company commenced operations 
on their purchase in 1757, effecting a settlement at Damascus 
on the Delaware (in the present Wayne County). This settle- 
ment seems to have prospered for several years. 5 By a vote of 
the Company on April 9, 1761, the operations of the Susque- 
hanna and Delaware Companies were to be conducted jointly, 
and their purchase made into one civil government. 6 

In September, 1762, the Susquehanna Company sent more 
than one hundred men to Wyoming. They commenced a settle- 
ment near the present limits of the city of Wilkes-Barre, but 
not having sufficient provisions for the winter in November 
they concealed their tools from the Indians and returned home. 7 
In the spring of the following year they returned with their 
families, and took possession of their former settlement. The 

1 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 293. 

2 Chapman: Op. cit., p. 62. 

3 Hoyt: Op. cit., p. 14. 

4 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 317. 

5 Miner: Op. cit., p. 70. 

6 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XVIII, p. 36. 

7 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 402-404. 

Note. An attempt had been made in 1670 by Connecticut people to estab- 
lish a colony at the Minisink near the Delaware Water Gap, but the plan was 
given up because the Indian title had not been extinguished. Miner: Op. 
cit., p. 70. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 27 

Indians were still on the warpath and a general massacre followed 
which put an end temporarily to the undertaking; and the 
settlers fled for their lives. 1 

In the meantime at a meeting of the Susquehanna Company 
on April 17, 1763, it was voted to lay out townships for the 
speedy settlement of the land; eight townships were to be laid 
out on the river, each to be iive miles square. All beds of mine 
ore and coal were to be reserved for the use of the company, and 
for their after disposal. 2 The Connecticut people were thus 
already entering on a policy of conservation and public owner- 
ship of public utilities. At the same meeting it was also voted 
that "some proper well disposed person, or persons, be pro- 
cured by those persons who shall undertake to settle on the 
Susquehanna lands, ... in order to be as a head or teacher, 
to carry on religious instructions and worship among the settlers, 
to wit., of such denomination as by any particular number may 
be agreed upon, and to be at the expense of those persons of 
such denomination, as such persons so procured shall be until 
some further regulation can be had." 3 This action carries 
strong proof that while the settlers had the old-fashioned New 
England conviction of the necessity of religious ministration 
and education, yet they had gone far on the road to the separa- 
tion of religious and civil interests, and were ready not only to 
exercise religious toleration, but to make the maintenance of 
religious exercises a private, rather than a public charge. The 
Indian hostilities delayed the enterprise but meetings were held 
at intervals during the next five years for the purpose of for- 
warding the Company's interests with the King. At a meeting 
on January 6, 1768, definite steps were taken to secure his 
Majesty's confirmation of the purchase and his consent to their 
formation "into a distinct colony for the purpose of civil govern- 
ment." 4 The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania were alarmed at 
the advance of the Connecticut movement and both colonies 
sought legal decisions in the matter of the ownership of the land. 5 

1 Chapman: Op. cit., p. 64 ff. Cf. Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 431. 

2 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XVIII, p. 47. 

3 Ibid., p. 49. 

* Ibid., pp. 50-57- 

6 Chapman: Op. cit., pp. 65-68. Cf. Penna. Archives, Second Series, 
Vol. XVIII, p. 88. 



28 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

In 1763 a deed to the Susquehanna Company confirming the 
sale of the Wyoming lands was executed by the Six Nations. 1 
The Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, however, secured in 1768 
from the Six Nations a deed for all the lands in the province 
not previously sold to them, this including most of the lands 
of the Susquehanna and Delaware purchases. 2 The Company 
took immediate steps, therefore, to prosecute their claim by 
possession; and at a meeting held in Hartford, December 28, 
1768, it was resolved that forty persons upwards of the age of 
twenty-one years, proprietors in the purchase, should be sent 
to take possession of the land by the first day of the February 
following; that two hundred more were to follow early in the 
spring. Two hundred pounds were allowed for the expenses 
of the expedition. Five townships, each five miles square, 
three on one side of the river and two on the other, were to be 
laid out. The first forty were to have their choice of one of the 
townships, the four remaining to belong to the two hundred. 
Three whole rights or shares in each township were to be re- 
served and appropriated "for the public use of a gospel ministry 
and schools in each of said towns." As before, all beds of mine 
ore and coal were reserved for the after disposal of the company 
and the resolution of the meeting of April 17, 1763, making 
provision for the securing of a minister was repeated. It was 
also voted "to grant to Dr. Eleazar Wheelock a tract of land in 
the easterly part of the Susquehanna purchase, ten miles long, 
and six miles wide for the use of the Indian school under his 
care. Provided, he shall set up and keep said school on the 
premises." A committee of five was appointed to order the 
affairs and proceedings of the forty, which might be increased 
to nine when the two hundred arrived. Appeal might be made 
from the decisions of this committee to the company at a later 
meeting of that body. 3 The five townships so assigned and laid 
out were Wilkes-Barre, Hanover, Pittston, Kingston and Ply- 
mouth. 4 

The Proprietaries had laid out the "manors" of Sunbury and 

1 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 10. 

2 Ibid., Vol. I, p. 452. 

* Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XVIII, pp. 59-62. 
4 Hoyt: Op. cit., p. 19. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 29 

Stoke in the limits of the Susquehanna purchase, 1 and they now 
made a counter move by leasing one hundred acres in Wyoming 
for seven years to three men who were to establish a trading 
post and defend the region against all enemies. These arrived in 
January, 1769, taking possession of the improvements which 
had been left by the Connecticut people when they fled from the 
Indians in 1763. 2 On February 8, the forty sent by the Sus- 
quehanna Company reached the ground. Trouble ensued, and 
in spite of the two hundred who arrived in the spring, according 
to the program, the net result at this time was the abandon- 
ment of the undertaking and the return of the settlers to their 
homes. Still they were not discouraged, and returning later 
with the assistance of some Pennsylvanians from Lancaster 
County, after a series of military encounters of the "border 
warfare" style, in 1771 they were left in possession of the field. 
This preliminary conflict closed with a victory for the New 
England men. 3 

In the meantime unsuccessful attempts at a negotiation of 
the difficulties had been made by Connecticut, and by 1771 
Pennsylvania was ready to seek an adjustment. When Governor 
Trumbull of Connecticut was asked whether the Connecticut 
proceedings were authorized he replied that the General As- 
sembly would countenance no violent or hostile measures to 
vindicate the rights of the Susquehanna Company. 4 Fisher 
comments on the shrewd position taken by the authorities of 
Connecticut. In their official capacity they disowned the 
aggressions of the company, while as individuals they were 
financially interested. When accused as a company they called 
on the government to shoulder the blame, and vice versa. 5 
By this time the Wyoming settlers with their constantly in- 
creasing numbers were too strong for the Proprietaries, and the 
Pennsylvania troops were withdrawn. In the meantime the 
settlers had petitioned the General Assembly of Connecticut 
to erect Wyoming into a county. 6 Northumberland County, 

1 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 456. 

2 Ibid., Vol. I, pp. 457-460. 

3 Chapman: Op. cit., p. 94. Cf. Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 703. 

4 Colonial Records, Vol. 10, pp. 3, 4. Cf. pp. 112, 143. 

5 Op. cit., p. 274. 

6 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 509. 



30 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

comprehending the Wyoming Valley, was erected by Act of the 
Pennsylvania Assembly in March, 1772. The Susquehanna 
Company, at a meeting in Hartford on June 2, 1773, "having 
applied to counsel learned in the law in Great Britain for their 
advice which the colony had not yet received, and there being 
no civil authority in said settlement," adopted the "Articles 
of Agreement" for the government of the settlers. These pro- 
vided for the election of three able and judicious men in each 
town, and a constable, these to meet on the first Monday in 
each month, or oftener if need be; the directors of each individual 
town or plantation were to meet once every quarter and come to 
resolutions for the good of the settlement and hear complaints 
of such as were entitled to appeal from the decision of the di- 
rectors in the several towns. 1 

In 1774 Connecticut erected the town of Westmoreland out 
of the disputed territory, annexing it to Litchfield County. 
A "town" in Connecticut is a municipal district equivalent to 
what is called a township in Pennsylvania and elsewhere. With- 
in it may be several villages and cities. 2 This " town " comprised 
the whole of the territory which had been purchased from the 
Indians by the Delaware Company, and a small portion of that 
included in the Susquehanna purchase. Its eastern boundary 
was the Delaware River, its western a line running north and 
south fifteen miles west of Wilkes-Barre. The western boundary 
was twice extended in 1775, finally reaching a line fifteen English 
miles west of the east branch of the Susquehanna. 3 In 1776 
Westmoreland was erected into a county, with the same limits 
as the town. 4 The "townships" were the local districts five 
and six miles square laid out by the Susquehanna and Delaware 
Companies. The laws of Connecticut were in force and repre- 
sentatives were elected to the Connecticut legislature from 1774 
until the time of the Trenton Decree. 5 Lines from the dis- 
trict formed the twenty-fourth Connecticut regiment in the 
Continental army. 6 

1 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XVIII, pp. 81-91. 

2 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 248. Note. 

3 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 864. Cf. map opp. p. 790. 

4 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 907. 

6 Miner: Op. cit., p. 308. 
6 Johnston: Op. cit., p. 278. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 31 

It is not to the purpose of this discussion to follow the later 
details of the Wyoming difficulties; the narrative has been 
fully told in the older and the more recent histories. Nor is it a 
part of this discussion to enter into the disputes concerning title 
to land. Hoyt 1 sets forth the claim of Connecticut, and the 
paper attributed to Dr. Smith, the first Provost of the University 
of Pennsylvania, that of Pennsylvania. 2 Of recent historians, 
Johnston 3 discusses briefly the Connecticut rights, and Fisher 4 
sums up for Pennsylvania. The Revolution changed the face 
of the controversy by crystallizing in Pennsylvania the popular 
effort to get rid of the Proprietaries. The Penns had sold land 
to private individuals in the two manors of Stoke and Sunbury. 
This gave to the controversy the aspect of a private dispute 
about land. The Connecticut people were now serving in the 
Continental army, and private feuds were necessarily to a large 
extent ignored in the face of a common danger. Some New 
Englanders had established in 1771 a settlement outside of 
Westmoreland, and fresh quarrels and disturbances occurred. 5 
British alliances with the Indians brought on the terrible tragedy 
of the "Wyoming massacre," or invasion, of 1778. With the 
close of the Revolution Pennsylvania appealed to Congress to 
settle the dispute. A Court of Commissioners was mutually 
agreed upon, and a decision in favor of Pennsylvania was render- 
ed in 1782. The Connecticut people were ready to acquiesce, 
but troublesome questions of titles to land remained. In a 
bungling attempt to settle these Pennsylvania reaped the con- 
sequences in another "Pennamite War." These proceedings 
were denounced by the people of the state and by the Council 
of Censors. 6 Meetings of the Susquehanna Company were held 
at various times from 1783 to 1801 to support their claims. 7 
A project was formed for making a new state, and Oliver Wolcott 
drew up a Constitution for it. 8 By act of the Pennsylvania 

1 Op. cit., 

2 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XVIII, pp. 125-214. 

3 Op. cit., Chapter XV. 

4 Op. cit., Chapter X. 

5 Miner: Op. cit., pp. 166-168. 

6 Fisher: Op. cit., pp. 300-317. 

7 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. XVIII, pp. 104-122. 

8 Hoyt: Op. cit., p. 73. See Appendix A. 



2,2 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

legislature in 1786, Luzerne County was established containing 
a large portion of the disputed territory. Timothy Pickering 
worked energetically to pacify the people and win them to sub- 
mission to the government of Pennsylvania. They now had 
representation in the General Assembly of the State, and the 
controversies which remained were legal. These final adjust- 
ments were made by a series of legislative enactments by the 
close of the first decade of the nineteenth century, and peace 
descended upon the district which had known little else than 
conflict for forty years. 1 

The territory in question embraced the whole or part of the 
present Wayne, Pike, Monroe, Carbon, Luzerne, Lackawanna, 
Wyoming, Susquehanna, Bradford, Sullivan, Columbia, Mon- 
tour, Northumberland, Union, Centre, Clinton, Lycoming, 
Tioga, Potter, McKean, Elk, Cameron and Clearfield counties. 
Luzerne County as organized in 1786 included the great body 
of the New England settlers. By later enactments of the 
Legislature other counties or portions of such have been set off 
from Luzerne, or county lines otherwise altered so that these 
settlers were mainly in the present Luzerne, Lackawanna, Sus- 
quehanna, Wayne, Pike, Bradford, and Potter counties. The 
population of Luzerne County at the time of its erection has 
been estimated as about two thousand seven hundred. 2 The 
settlement had been nourished in calamity but its growth had 
not been stifled. 

From this survey of the conditions which attended the settle- 
ment of this region it is now in order to turn to its educational 
history; and to trace the origin of the ideals and practices 
which the Connecticut settlers brought with them from their 
native state, endeavoring to build up a similar structure in the 
home of their adoption. 

1 Laws of Pennsylvania. Smith's Laws, Vol. Ill, pp. 367, 368. 

2 Proceedings and Collections, Vol. XIII, p. m. 



CHAPTER III 

THE EDUCATIONAL INHERITANCE OF THE 
WYOMING SETTLERS 

Education in Connecticut to the Close of the Eighteenth Century 

The seeds of the system of public education which had develop- 
ed in Connecticut by the middle of the eighteenth century were 
sown in the old world, when in conformity with the custom of the 
Reformed faith, a pastor and a teacher were chosen by the three 
congregations which migrated to New England and later became 
the founders of the Connecticut colony. The roots of their 
educational, as of their religious and political life, intermingled 
at first with those of the older colony. But Calvinism was a 
progressive ferment, and political dissent led to the separation 
of the congregations from their brethren and to the establishment 
in 1634 and 1635 of the Connecticut towns. Here, as already 
indicated, democracy underwent a further development, church 
membership not being required for the exercise of the right of 
suffrage. This is the first appearance in New England of the 
cleavage between Church and State, and it was the entering of 
the wedge which, working slowly but with irresistible force, 
was ultimately to drive out ecclesiastical domination from state 
and from public education. 

The educational developments of Connecticut were necessarily 
at first identified with those of Massachusetts, and even after 
the separation, the younger colony was influenced by the older. 
The demand of Luther and Calvin for an education which should 
fit men to live in the state, as well as to die and leave it, has 
already been noted. In New England the value of education 
from a civil standpoint was early emphasized and developed 
rapidly. The unanimity of the theological belief of the New 
England colonists and the nature of that belief were favorable 
to educational unity and educational progress. They had 
learned from hard experience that there could be no religious 
liberty without civil freedom. The town meeting was primarily 

33 



34 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

a meeting of the body politic for the regulation of civil affairs. 
The ecclesiastical proceedings were a portion of the lay business 
of the town meeting and not vice versa. The educational 
matters which were considered in the town meeting became 
therefore necessarily a civil, not an ecclesiastical function. 1 
The common school of New England was in no sense a child of 
the Church; it was a child of the people. 2 The civil interest 
was prominent from the outset, and in the earliest legislation 
of both colonies the "learning and labor" that were profitable 
to the Commonwealth, and a "knowledge of the capital laws" 
were prime considerations. 

About the time that the Watertown and Dorchester congre- 
gations were preparing to go out into the wilderness and lay the 
foundations of their new settlements, in the spring of 1635, 
Boston was taking steps toward the establishment of her first 
school, the famous Boston Latin School. In this, as in similar 
foundations in New England, the colonists were transplanting 
to their new homes the familiar ideals of the mother country. 
This school was therefore probably designed by its founders as 
a ' ' public " or " free ' ' school intended primarily to give instruction 
in the classical languages to all classes of children; but, as in 
similar schools of England, providing necessarily also some 
elementary education. 3 The import of the terms "public" 
and "free" school has already been considered. At about this 
time, or within a few years most of the Massachusetts towns 
had taken similar steps. The support of the schools was pro- 
vided for by grants of land, by gifts or bequests of individuals, 
by allowances made out of the common stock of the town, by 
rates of those not contributing, by tuition fees paid by parents, 
or by various combinations of these. 4 There was at first no 
uniformity in support; and apparently no direct taxation; nor 
were tuition fees at first commonly employed. 5 The claim has 

1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1894-95, Vol. I, 
p. 1458. 

2 Ibid., p. 1523. 

3 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. II, 
pp. 1 166, 67. 

4 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. II, 
p. 1 168. 

6 Martin: Evolution of the Massachusetts Public School System, pp. 48, 49. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 35 

been made for Dorchester that there was made the first provis- 
ion in the world for a free school supported by a direct tax on the 
inhabitants. This was in 1639. 1 While the towns generally 
maintained an oversight of the schools, in Dorchester in 1645 
at a town meeting a school committee was appointed, consisting 
of three members, who were termed "wardens" or "overseers 
of the school." This is believed to have been the first school 
committee appointed by any municipality in this country. 2 
While formerly it was supposed that corporate provision was 
made at first only for "grammar," i. e., Latin schools, it has 
recently become evident that as in Boston, so in other places, 
elementary education was generally maintained by the towns 
in one way or another. Theoretically children were supposed 
to have mastered the art of reading before entering the grammar 
school, yet this was not always the case, and in various ways 
provision was made for elementary instruction either in the 
grammar school or in another school provided for that purpose. 
The "dame school" of England was reproduced in the younger 
country in answer to the necessities of the situation. 3 Harvard 
College founded in 1636 by a vote of the Court is famous be- 
cause it is said to be the first instance in which the people, 
acting through a representative body, ever gave their money 
to found a place of education. 4 The system was therefore com- 
plete, elementary, secondary and higher education being ac- 
cessible in due order within six years of the foundation of the 
settlement in at least one town, and opportunity for the first 
two forms within a few years in others. 

The law of 1642 of the Massachusetts colony is famous and has 
been often quoted. 5 It recognized the responsibility of the state 
in respect of every member of the same, the duty of parents 
and employers toward minors, and the right of the state to add 
the civil compulsion to the moral obligation of parents and guard- 
ians. It emphasized the necessity of intelligence and of skill 
in industry for the moral and religious, as well as for the material 

1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. II, 
p. 1 170. Note 5. 

2 Ibid., p. 1 172. 

3 Martin: Op. cit., pp. 53, 54. 

4 Boone: Education in the United States, p. 20. Note. 

5 Clews: Op. cit., pp. 59, 60. 



36 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

advancement of the commonwealth. Schools, however, were not 
established under this enactment. The law of 1647 laid the foun- 
dation of subsequent educational legislation in New England. It 
added to the previous legislation the significant provision for ele- 
mentary and grammar schools to be set up in every township re- 
spectively which had increased to the number of fifty and one 
hundred families, the wages of schoolmasters to be paid either by 
the parents or masters, or by the inhabitants in general, with 
a penalty for neglect of the law. 1 This has been called the first 
distinctly civil act in respect of school legislation in the history of 
modern Christendom. 2 In laying these educational foundations 
New England was carrying out the ideals of the Renaissance- 
Reformation age in the mother country. The awakened re- 
ligious spirit was associated with the zeal for learning, especially 
such as would reveal the "true sense and meaning of the original 
tongues." 3 The clergyman was esteemed in New England not 
only by reason of his religious function, but also and quite as 
fully because of his command of learning. Because of the new 
civil importance of both religion and learning, the latter came 
as the years passed on, to occupy a unique place of importance 
and dignity in the commonwealth, overshadowing even the 
religious interest. 

The law of 1647 was carried over into the first Connecticut 
law concerning education in the code of 1650. To the educational 
beginnings of that colony consideration must now be given. 

The settlers of the Connecticut towns had the intense religious 
convictions of the Massachusetts colonists, the same zeal in 
behalf of learning, and a more thorough-going belief in democracy. 
Practice in education preceded legislation, and before any pro- 
vision was made by law for the regulation and support of schools, 
the ministers and magistrates are said to have made a plea in 
town meeting and among the families that an allowance should 
be made out of the common stock of the town for the support of 
a common school, and that parents of all classes should send 
their children to the same school. 4 "The outlines and most of 

1 Clews: Op. cit., pp. 60, 62. 

2 Brown: Op. cit., pp. 65, 66. 

3 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1893-94, Vol. I, 
p. 658. 

4 Barnard: American Journal of Education, Vol. IV, p. 658. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 37 

the essential features of the present system of common schools 
will be found in the practice of the first settlers of the several 
towns which composed the two original colonies of Connecticut 
and New Haven before any general law was made for the reg- 
ulation and support of schools or the bringing up of children." 1 
In both colonies there is some evidence of the existence of schools 
in 1639. 2 New Haven records show that in 1641 the court 
noted that "a free school shall be set up in the town, " the pastor 
and magistrates to consider what yearly allowance should be 
given to it out of the common stock of the town. 3 In 1644 New 
Haven established a public grammar, or "free" school to train 
the youth for public service in church and commonwealth, and 
as before, the magistrates with the teaching elders were "en- 
treated to consider . . . what allowance may be made for the 
schoolmaster's care and pains, which shall be paid out of the 
town's stock." 4 The early records of Hartford are lost, but 
in 1642 the voters appropriated thirty pounds a year to the 
town school, 5 and six years later a schoolhouse was ordered to be 
built, not to be devoted to any other use or employment. 6 It 
is believed that all of the original settlements had within twenty 
years established schools. 7 The mode of support in Hartford 
was adopted by the other Connecticut towns, and was partly a 
charge on the general funds or property of the town, and partly 
by a rate bill or tuition, paid by the parents or guardians of 
children attending school, "paying alike to the head." 8 The 
poor were taught free of charge. 9 The General Court of Hart- 
ford made provision in 1644 f° r an annual collection in every 
town in the jurisdiction for the maintenance of scholars at Har- 
vard College. 10 The New Haven Court made similar provision 

1 Ibid., p. 657. 

2 Brown: Op. cit., p. 45. 

3 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. II, 
p. 1 176. 

4 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 662. 
6 Ibid., p. 658. 

6 U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information No. 2, 1893. Steiner: 
The History of Education in Connecticut, p. 16. 

7 Ibid., pp. 16, 17. 

8 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 659. 

9 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. II, 
p. 1 1 76. 

10 Clews: Op. cit., p. 73. 



38 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

and renewed the vote from year to year. 1 The records of New 
Haven from 1641 to 1660 are full of entries respecting appro- 
priations of money to teachers and reports of committees on 
schools; and on these committees the governor, minister, magis- 
trates or deputies were always placed. Barnard says that before 
New Haven ceased to be an independent colony a system of 
public education had been established through the influence of 
Theophilus Eaton and John Davenport, which was without a 
parallel at that time in any part of the world, and not surpassed 
in its universal application to all classes, rich and poor, in any 
subsequent period in the history of the state. 2 

Connecticut took steps in 1646 to codify her laws, and ap- 
pointed Roger Ludlow who had held various offices in the colony, 
and who had probably assisted in framing the educational laws 
of Massachusetts, to compile a code of laws. 3 This was com- 
pleted in 1650, and was a codification of all the laws passed by 
the general court together with local practices which had grown 
up in the towns which seemed worthy of adoption by the whole 
colony. Many provisions were borrowed from the Massachu- 
setts laws. Under the title "children," it was required that 
children and apprentices should be taught to read English and 
understand the capital laws, and a penalty was attached to the 
neglect of the law. Children and servants were to be taught and 
catechized in the grounds and principles of religion, and also 
to be brought up in some honest calling or labor if they could 
not be educated for higher employments. The selectmen were 
empowered to remove minors from the care of such parents and 
masters as were negligent of the law, and to place them with 
suitable masters, boys until the age of twenty-one, and girls to 
eighteen. Under "Schools" it was enacted that in order to 
preserve learning in the Church and Commonwealth every 
town of fifty householders should establish an elementary school, 
the teacher to be paid either by the parents and masters or by 
the town, and every town of one hundred householders, a gram- 
mar school to prepare youth for the university. A penalty was 
attached to the neglect of the law. 4 Provision was also made for 

1 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 662. 

2 Op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 665. 

3 Clews: Op. cit., p. 73. Note. 

4 Ibid., pp. 74-76. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 39 

the religious instruction of the Indians. 1 With slight modifi- 
cation these laws remained on the statute books of the state 
until almost the close of the eighteenth century. 2 New Haven 
had a code of laws drawn up about 1648 or 1649, revised in 
1655, and published in 1656, which contained an educational 
provision similar to that of Connecticut. 3 With the union of the 
two colonies in 1655, the laws of the latter colony superseded 
those of the former. 4 The school code was repeatedly revised 
and during the eighteenth century legislation was frequent, much 
of it looking toward the increase in the efficiency of the schools 
and their better and more effective administration. In 17 12 the 
colony took the first steps backward in the administration of her 
schools by withdrawing their direction from the towns and plac- 
ing it in the hands of the newly created "parishes." 5 The 
practical effects of this retrograde movement, however, were at 
first slight and of slow development. The inner workings of 
the school "society" and the differences representing this 
transition stage are an open question. 6 As long as the people 
were of the same mind ecclesiastically, the school was managed 
by the same group of persons who voted in town and "society" 
meetings in the administration of their respective civil and re- 
ligious interests. In spite of the "steady tramp of the Church 
and clergy" 7 as they sought to obtain control of popular educa- 
tion and of public funds appropriated for educational purposes, 
the climax of the slowly growing difficulties between Church 
and civil society, sure to follow, was not reached until the acts 
of 1795 and 1798, when the whole system was revolutionized, 
and the ecclesiastical influence and power in educational mat- 
ters were confirmed. 8 The authority of the towns, the old- 

1 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. IV, pp. 665, 667. 

2 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. II, 
p. 1176. 

3 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 664. 
* Ibid., p. 665. 

5 Steiner: Op. cit., p. 30. 

6 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. I, 

PP- 773. 774- 

7 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1894-95, Vol. II, 

p. 1580. 

8 Steiner: Op. cit., p. 35. 



40 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

time agencies in education, had disappeared and the "school 
societies" had taken their place. Together with the change in 
the mode of supporting the schools by the great increase at this 
time in the public funds largely from the sale of the Western 
Reserve lands in Ohio, and by the removal of the obligation of 
raising money by taxation, the result was ultimately disastrous 
to the educational system of the state. 1 During the eighteenth 
century, however, the educational standards were maintained; 
and up to 1798 the law enforced the keeping of schools in towns 
or societies of more than seventy families for eleven months of the 
year, and in those of less than seventy for at least one half of the 
year. It also enforced the keeping of a grammar school in the 
head town of the several counties. 1 1 imposed a tax for the support 
of schools which was distributed to towns or societies complying 
with the law. 2 The educational system of Connecticut until 
the time of the Revolution has been described as "the nearest 
approach to our present system of any then existing in the 
colonies." At this time illiteracy was practically non-existent 
in the colony. 3 Education was by law compulsory and the law 
was enforced. Barnard says "While the course of instruction 
in the common schools prior to 1800 was limited to spelling, read- 
ing, writing and the elements of arithmetic, these studies were 
pursued by all the people of the State; so that it was rare to find 
a native of Connecticut ' who could not read the holy word of God 
and the good laws of the State.' " These schools such as they 
were, were the main reliance of the whole community for the 
above studies. There were but few private schools, except to 
fit young men for college or carry them forward in the higher 
branches of an English education." 4 "In no part of the world 
is the education of all ranks of the people more attended to than 
in Connecticut," says an English writer in 1796. "Almost every 
town in the State is divided into districts and each district has a 
public school kept in it a greater or less part of every year. 
Somewhat more than one third of the moneys arising from a 

1 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. IV, pp. 705, 706. 

2 Ibid., p. 709. 

3 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1894-95, Vol. II, 
p. 1578. 

4 Op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 709. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 41 

tax on the polls and ratable estate of the inhabitants is appro- 
priated to the support of schools in the several towns, for the 
education of children and youth." 1 The schoolmaster was 
esteemed equally with the clergyman or magistrate. In an 
old bill for fitting up a meeting-house in Windsor, there is a 
separate item for wainscoting and elevating the pews which were 
to be occupied by the magistrates, the deacon's family and the 
schoolmaster. 2 The teachers of the district schools were drawn 
from a superior grade of the people, because of the professional 
standard and the honor in which the office was held. This is 
true not only of men, but also of women. 3 College and academy 
students recruited the ranks of the teaching body and this 
maintained the standards of the school and the dignity of the 
profession in the state. In addition to these in some smaller 
New England towns it was the custom to open a subscription 
school for three months in the autumn, where a higher grade 
of studies, including the classics, could be pursued. The teach- 
ers were college graduates of the preceding summer, or students 
of theological schools. 4 Thus the benefits of the higher education 
were extended in the community. "No State," says Hinsdale, 
"has a more honorable educational record, taken altogether, 
than Connecticut. No other of the old states can show such 
a connected series of public and private transactions relating 
to schools and education extending from the foundation of the 
Commonwealth down to the opening of the present educational 
era, some fifty or sixty years ago." 5 Moreover here were laid 
the foundations not only "for a universal education, but for a 
practical and social equality which has never been surpassed in 

1 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. XXIV, p. 144, citing "Extracts from Rev. W. 
Winterbotham's View of the United States of America," London, 1796. 

2 Barnard: Op. cit., Vol. IV, p. 659. 

3 Note: There is some reason to believe that girls had earlier consideration 
in Connecticut than elsewhere, even in Massachusetts. While in some towns 
of the latter colony they were excluded until almost the close of the eight- 
eenth century, they are said to have been taught in the public schools in and 
around Hartford in 1770, sitting on separate benches, but not in separate 
classes. Brown: Op. cit., pp. 251, 253. 

P- 1595- 

4 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1894-95, Vol. II, 

P- 1595- 

6 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1892-93, Vol. II, 
p. 1240. 



42 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

the history of any other community. The people of Connecticut 
were the most enlightened of all the Colonies at the dawn of the 
American independence." 1 

These were the ideals which had been fostered for more than 
a hundred years in the home state when the Wyoming settlers 
went out to build new dwellings in the Pennsylvania wilderness; 
this was the educational inheritance which they carried with 
them and endeavored to maintain as they laid the foundations 
for their new community, for its civic, religious and educational 
life. 

1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1893-94, Vol. I, 
p. 659. 



CHAPTER IV 
EDUCATION IN WYOMING 

The Wyoming settlers, therefore, brought with them to 
Pennsylvania the results of more than a hundred years of educa- 
tional endeavor for the Commonwealth, and an established con- 
viction of the value to the state of the common school. The 
first steps in the provision for religious and moral care of the new 
community were taken by the action of the Susquehanna Com- 
pany at Windham on April 17, 1763, when it was voted that a 
suitable person or persons should be procured by the settlers to 
carry on religious instruction and worship. This general provision 
for religious care found specific expression in the later action of 
the Company in 1768, when it was resolved that three rights or 
shares in each of the five townships planned should be appro- 
priated for the support of religion and education. 1 All the towns 
settled by the company were under the same conditions as the 
first five; and the three rights or shares were subsequently 
devoted by the settlers exclusively to school purposes. 2 The 
appropriation of several thousand acres in the eastern part of 
the state for the use of the Indian school maintained by Dr. 
Wheelock has been previously mentioned. 3 The offer was not 
accepted, and the school was established not in Pennsylvania, 
but in New Hampshire and later became Dartmouth College. 4 

The educational history of the Wyoming region began in 
1770, when the Wilkes-Barre town plot was surveyed and lots 
were drawn by the proprietors of the townships. 5 The will of the 
Susquehanna Company was carried out by the setting aside of 
two lots, containing about four hundred acres of land, for the 
first settled minister and for schools. The spirit of religious 

1 Supra, p. 28. 

2 Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in Pennsylvania, 
1877, p. 374- 

3 Supra, p. 28. 

4 Dexter: History of Education in the United States, p. 265. 
6 Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. II, p. 653. 

43 



44 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

tolerance was shown by the fact that when it appeared that a 
number of the people were Baptists (the majority being Pres- 
byterians), the vote was rescinded which demanded a tax from 
them, and an arrangement made which was satisfactory to all, 
by which the former group might attend the ministrations of their 
own denomination in Kingston. 1 The sum of money promised 
to the pastor was then raised by subscription. 2 It is evident that 
the Connecticut settlers were here laying the foundation of 
the modern non-sectarian public school system, and separating 
the business of the church from that of education; and in this 
respect they were taking a step in advance of their home colony. 
With the adoption of the "Articles of Agreement" by the Sus- 
quehanna Company the townships began the direction of their 
local affairs through their chosen representatives. 

At a town meeting in Wilkes-Barre in 1773 a vote was passed 
to raise three pence on the pound in the district list to keep a 
free school in the several school districts of the town ; and a sub- 
sequent meeting, "specially warned," adopted measures for the 
keeping open of free schools, one in the upper district of the town, 
one in the lower, and a third on the town plot. 3 At a town meet- 
ing held in Kingston the same year three persons were chosen to 
divide the town into three districts for the keeping of schools. 4 
Eight town meetings were held in 1774 and at the last held on 
December 6, a School Committee was chosen, consisting of 
fifteen persons to act for the ensuing year. 5 This body so 
chosen at the "town" or general meeting of the settlers has been 
regarded as a sort of county organization whose function was 
to co-operate with the local committee of the various town- 
ships. It has been inferred that the action taken by Wilkes- 

1 Miner: Op. cit., pp. 143, 144. 

2 Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming Historical Society, Vol. IV, 
p. 49. 

3 Miner: Op. cit., p. 144. 

Note: The survey of Wilkes-Barre in 1770 established what is known as 
the Town Plot, showing a division of lots and an open space along the river on 
which the lots bounded. This is the earliest authentic evidence of an inten- 
tion by the first settlers to leave an open space in front of the town, along the 
river for public uses. Harvey: Op. cit., Vol. II, map p. 655. 

4 Report of State Superintendent, 1877, p. 377. 

6 Miner: Op. cit., p. 159 (quoting the "Westmoreland Records"). 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 45 

Barre was duplicated in the other townships. The fragmentary 
records which have been preserved and collected by local and 
county historians furnish evidence sufficient to support this 
conclusion. One township set aside land for church and school 
purposes. 1 Another voted in 1806 that the interest of the public 
moneys for three years past be appropriated to schools. Six 
trustees were appointed to divide the township into three school 
districts, a census of the school population in each division was 
made, and schools were established in each district. 2 Thus into 
the Wyoming region generally was introduced and maintained 
the fundamental principle of the common school system, educa- 
tion for all free from sectarian bias, schools supported by a 
general fund or tax, or both, with local management and res- 
sponsibility. It was the first appearance on Pennsylvania soil 
of the system of public education of which today our state is 
justly proud. It established the modern ideal that education was 
not a charity, nor was it to be fostered in the spirit of sectarian 
bias or denominational coloring; it was the education for a 
democracy through the medium of the public school. With the 
erection of Westmoreland into a county and the levying of state 
and county taxes, an attempt was made to open and support 
schools. Throughout the proceedings of 1777 education en- 
gaged more than ordinary attention. In spite of the taxes paid 
into the treasury at Hartford, an additional tax of a penny in 
the pound was paid for the support of schools. Each township 
was established as a legal school district with power to rent the 
lands sequestered by the Susquehanna Company for the use of 
schools, and also to receive of the School Committee appointed 
by the town their part of the county money according to their 
respective rates. The value of higher education was not for- 
gotten, for it was entered on the record that for the first time 
during the year a student had been sent to Yale. 3 In 1778 came 
the terrors of the Wyoming massacre, but educational interests 
were not long neglected, for in 1779 at a town meeting on Dec- 
ember 6, the usual officials were chosen, including a School 
Committee. 4 

1 Report of State Superintendent, 1877, p. 373. 

2 History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, p. 326. 

3 Miner: Op. cit., p. 197 (quoting the "Westmoreland Records"). 

4 Ibid., p. 277. 



46 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

Since the records of actual achievement of the various town- 
ships during the years of the Connecticut jurisdiction and after 
the Trenton Decree are so scanty, there are few details to show 
what was accomplished in the first years of the settlement or 
in the early portion of the nineteenth century in the carrying out 
of the educational policies which were so wisely and energeti- 
cally planned by the settlers as they laid the foundations of their 
new communities. In the disasters of the "Pennamite" and 
Revolutionary wars, in the clash of authority between Con- 
necticut and Pennsylvania, in the hardships, poverty, factional 
feeling and legal strife which were their lot, the plan to support 
free public schools by taxation was apparently not carried to a 
conclusion. Miner asserts that by 1775 schoolhouses were 
erected in every district. 1 This is hardly credible in the existing 
state of affairs; and it is probably truer, as has been elsewhere 
stated, that "few or no buildings were erected especially for 
school or religious purposes until after the Compromise law of 
1799 was carried into effect, and the settlers quieted in their 
homes and property. Schools, however, were held in private 
houses, in barns, in structures temporarily fitted up, or even 
outdoors, before schoolhouses were built; and at no time was 
home education neglected, even after the building of schools." 2 
The meager and uncertain body of data concerning the Wyoming 
schools makes all attempt at historical statement of early schools 
and teachers unsatisfactory; but as has already been indicated, 
occasional records which have been gathered up, together with 
much reminiscence dating back often to a period before the open- 
ing of the nineteenth century show that the plan originally proposed 
was not abandoned. The names of several teachers in Wyoming 
previous to and at the time of the massacre in 1778 have been 
preserved. 3 The early efforts of Wilkes-Barre have already been 
described in connection with the policies of the Susquehanna 
Company. The exact sequel of these endeavors seems not to 
be known, but apparently there were provisions for education, 
either of a public or private nature, or both. At other points 
in the settlement, schools were an early care. In Kingston town- 

1 Op. cit., p. 164. 

2 Report of State Superintendent, 1877, p. 377. 

3 Ibid., pp. 375, 376. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 47 

ship a plot of ground containing ten square rods was leased by 
one of the citizens for school purposes on April 14, 1796, and the 
school was opened on the 26th of the month. The building was 
erected by the co-operation of a group of interested persons, 
each one bringing a share of materials and contributing his part 
to the labor, which was therefore promptly completed. The 
teacher was to receive for a term of twelve weeks the sum of 
thirty Spanish milled dollars and to board around. 1 The names 
of many of his successors have been preserved, and it is stated 
that most of these men and women were possessed of superior abili- 
ties, and were of high standing in their communities. There 
were among them men who were judges of the courts, or mem- 
bers of the legislature; one was the editor of a newspaper of 
recognized authority. An early teacher in Wilkes-Barre was a 
graduate of a German university. 2 At other places in the dis- 
trict, schools are said to have been erected and used in the early 
years of the nineteenth century. 3 William L. Horton adver- 
tised in 1802 "a School is just opened at the Lower School 
House in Kingston for the term of six months. Those who 
may see fit to commit their children to the care of the subscriber 
may depend upon their being instructed in the best manner 
with respect to both morals and education." 4 Beside the 
elementary schools the academies of New England were repro- 
duced in Wyoming by the founding of similar institutions for 
higher, including classical education. The famous Wilkes- 
Barre Academy was opened in 1804 and incorporated in 1807. 
Under the care of its second principal, Garrick Mallery, sent 
from Yale in response to the request of the trustees, the school 
acquired a reputation for its thorough classical and higher 
instruction, and many students came from a distance to enjoy 
its advantages. 5 Kingston had an academy founded in 1812, 6 
and Plymouth one in 1815. 7 

Of the present Wyoming County (formerly a portion of 
Luzerne) few records exist, but there is some evidence that a 

1 Ibid., p. 378. 

2 History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, p. 200. 

3 Report of State Superintendent, 1877, p. 380. 

4 Luzerne Federalist and Susquehanna Intelligencer, March 14, 1802. 

5 Report of State Superintendent, 1877, p. 387. See Appendix B. 

6 Wyoming Historical Record, Vol. VI, p. 174. 

7 Ibid., Vol. X, p. 160. 



48 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

school was held as early as 1800, that the first schoolhouse was 
built in 1802, and that in several townships educational facilities 
existed during the first and second decades of the nineteenth 
century. 1 

Wayne County contained the site of the first Connecticut 
settlement in Pennsylvania. It was not, however, of permanent 
duration. A school is said to have been organized in 1794 by 
the later settlers, and other schools and teachers are mentioned 
in 1799, 1800 and 1801. The first schoolhouse is said to have 
been erected in 1798. In 1808 and for several years following, 
a school in Salem was taught by the Rev. William Woodbridge, 
author of a well-known geography. He gave instruction in 
mathematics and natural science. 2 

In Susquehanna County, also formerly a part of Luzerne, 
records of schools show the latter to have been established from 
1794. The names of several teachers and locations of schools 
have been recorded and others doubtless not on record were 
maintained. This county, too, had an academy, the Susque- 
hanna Academy, incorporated in 18 16, and a classical school 
established in 181 7 which in 1830 was incorporated as Franklin 
Academy, and a third in Dundaff established in 1833. 3 

In Bradford County, also originally a part of Luzerne, where 
were numerous New Englanders, a similar school plan arose. 
The earliest school is believed to have been conducted about 
1788 or 1789 at Athens, which was the oldest township in the 
county, and recognized with the "certified townships" by the 
law of 1799. A number of schools were in existence apparently 
by the close of the first decade of the nineteenth century, and 
many names of those who taught are on record. Bradford 
County also early planned an academy. In 1797 twenty-five 
of the leading citizens of Athens subscribed to a fund for the 
erection of a building for the instruction of youth, and for the 
occasional uses of public worship, or other public business. 
The plan moved slowly but the academy was incorporated in 

1813. 4 

1 Report of State Superintendent, 1877, p. 607, 611. 

2 Ibid., pp. 585, 586. Cf. Wright: History of Plymouth, p. 269. See 
Appendix C. 

3 Ibid., pp. 521, 525. 
* Ibid., pp. 82-84. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 49 

Lackawanna County, also formerly a part of Luzerne, with its 
present capital city of Scranton, is recorded as having been the 
recipient in 1812, for educational purposes, of a large tract of 
land originally belonging to the proprietors of Providence town- 
ship. This land later became the subject of litigation and the 
financial returns were therefore not ultimately large. 1 Its 
existence, however, is evidence that the same principle was ap- 
plied here as elsewhere. Similarly with other localities in which 
these settlers were found, the school for the people, often re- 
sembling in its form the "neighborhood school," followed their 
footsteps. It is said, moreover, that there is no record of schools 
in Wyoming founded by the Pennsylvania claimants, 2 and it is 
probable that there were no schools founded and supported by 
churches. 

The data above quoted are given by way of illustration of the 
general situation. The Report of the Superintendent of Public 
Instruction in Pennsylvania for 1877 contains numerous similar 
statements, representing the known or probable school activities 
of the various localities of this region. County and local his- 
torians have collected further data. Founded often on reminis- 
cence and not on documentary evidence, the reliability of these 
from the historical point of view may be questioned; but it is 
impossible to avoid the conclusion that the spirit of the pioneers 
was maintained, and that their achievement was effective in 
proportion to their means and circumstances. Whatever lapse 
there may be in records, and whatever failure to carry out the 
plan so boldly inaugurated by the early settlers, it remains true 
that education was almost their first consideration. A study of 
the Report of 1877 indicates that in all the counties representing 
the New England settlements schools had been organized early 
in the nineteenth century, or before, and that they were of a 
character and standard resembling the schools of the mother 
state at the time. One writer says: "Whenever the forty 
families considered requisite for the occupation of a township 
were enlisted, their qualities, occupation and talents enumerated, 
the minister and school teacher were estimated as among the 
indispensables. Therefore schools were never neglected, and 

1 History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, p. 400. 

2 Report of State Superintendent, 1877, p. 377. 



50 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

books and paper were brought from the home colony. "* Another, 
a woman who had been educated in the pioneer schools, and who 
had taught in them for nearly fifty years wrote: "Our ancestors, 
coming from New England, principally from Connecticut and 
Massachusetts, and being well informed, intelligent and practi- 
cal men and women, brought with them people capable of use- 
fulness in all the requirements of an early, progressive and per- 
manent colonial settlement. They were of the best, most 
learned and influential families of their several New England 
colonies. Education was ever considered by them the basis 
of prosperity, independence and happiness." 2 As education 
according to the standard of those days was general in the home 
state, many families of those who came had sons and daughters 
who were qualified to teach. The social status of the teacher in 
the community was high, in accordance with the New England 
tradition of respect for that profession. Teachers were not 
infrequently college graduates, or students or graduates of the 
academies which had begun at that time to flourish at home. 
True to the Connecticut tradition, as soon as possible the people 
endeavored to secure good schoolhouses, not sparing expense, 
in proportion to their means, in the building and equipment 
of the structures which served for the education of their children, 
for places of religious worship, and often also for the adminis- 
tration of justice or other purposes of the community life. 3 
It is significant of their attitude that the evidence points to the 
fact that schoolhouses were promptly built and used for religious 
services by the various denominations in common. The building 
of churches in most localities seems to have followed rather 
slowly. 4 The first schools were built, like the first homes, of 
logs, but in many of the school districts frame buildings are said 
to have existed for some years prior to 1820. 5 

1 Wyoming Historical Record, Vol. Ill, p. 191. 

2 Ibid., Vol. V, pp. 1,3. 

3 Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming Historical and Geological 
Society, Vol. VI, p. 172. 

4 Note: In Wilkes-Barre a house of worship is said to have been built 
before 1778, and services held when war was not being waged. This was 
destroyed in the Wyoming massacre, and services were then held in the 
schoolhouses, of which there were several, and at the homes. Proceedings 
and Collections of the Wyoming Historical Society, Vol. IV, p. 52. 

6 Wyoming Historical Record, Vol. V, pp. 1-3. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 51 

The Wyoming teacher above quoted states that the school 
building of the period which forms her recollection was a frame 
structure, quite old and weather-beaten. It was about twenty- 
five feet square, lined, ceiled and seated with planed boards of 
white pine, with pine floor unpainted, as were also the weather- 
boards of the other coating. It was lighted by four twelve- 
pane windows of eight-by-ten glass. It was heated by a wood 
stove, the fuel supplied by the patrons of the school district. 1 

The income from the land set apart for the maintenance of 
schools provided the building and equipment. This was not 
always the case, however, for schoolhouses were sometimes 
built, as already noted, by the co-operation of interested patrons 
of a district. Sometimes under the direction of the township 
school committee a meeting of subscribers toward the erection 
of a schoolhouse was called. This took place in Pittston in 
1 810, when such a meeting of subscribers for building a school 
was held. A committee of three was appointed and authorized 
to obtain a deed or lease of a plot of ground, and to contract 
with a carpenter for the work. In accordance with the above, 
public notice was given of the letting of the contract to the 
lowest bidder for a building one story high with two chimneys. 
The contract was awarded for two hundred and fifteen dollars. 
By 1812 the school was completed, and used for school purposes, 
elections and other public business. 2 The School Committee 
employed teachers and exercised a general supervision. The 
salaries were frequently paid in whole or part by the patrons in 
proportion to the number of days they had sent their children to 
school. A "rate-bill" was made out by the teacher and handed 
to the Committee, who collected [.the amounts. 3 In this 
method the people were resorting to the well-known practice of 
New England, in which the school was supported by the joint 
contributions of the town and the parents. Often, doubtless, 
the method of support was simply that of the subscription or 
neighborhood school. Mention has been made of fuel contrib- 
uted by parents. In respect of the education of children 

1 Ibid., Vol. V, pp. 1-3. 

2 Volume of Newspaper Clippings of Luzerne County, p. 52 (in the Penn- 
sylvania Historical Society). 

3 Wickersham: Op. cit., p. 77- 



52 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

whose parents were not able to pay, it is to be remembered that 
few, if any, were wealthy, and all were socially of the same 
status. From the earliest days the practice of the home state 
had accorded free education to those unable to pay for it; and 
pioneers are not less generous than other people, but rather 
more so, owing to the conditions of their life. The law of 1809 
providing for the education of the poor will be referred to later. 

The salaries paid to teachers were meager even for those 
days, and the practice familiar in New England and elsewhere 
in the colonial communities of "boarding around" supplemented 
the teacher's income. 1 A local historian is authority for the 
statement that the contract made by the teacher with his em- 
ployers included a monthly allowance, with board and lodging, 
and occasionally a confidential arrangement was made by which 
he was to be relieved from sojourning with certain families. 2 
Teachers worked at other occupations, such as farming, when 
schools were not in session. 3 In the carrying out of the action 
of the Susquehanna Company the teacher did not, like the 
minister, have land set apart for his use. 

Schools were held winter and summer, men teaching often 
during the former session and women during the latter. Boys 
went to school in winter and girls in summer; even in the latter 
season the smaller children chiefly attended the elementary 
schools, the older girls being occupied at home. Customs grew out 
of the requirements of life, and were similar to those of the home 
state. There is no reason to suppose that girls and boys were 
not taught together whenever it was convenient since girls were 
more tolerantly viewed at an early date in some parts of Con- 
necticut than elsewhere. 4 

The curriculum of the elementary school of Connecticut during 
this period was a limited one. A letter written to Henry Bar- 
nard by President Humphrey, of Amherst College concerning 
the schools of the state between 1790 and 1800 contains the 

1 Note: Men teachers apparently received about ten or twelve dollars a 
month and board, and women one dollar, more or less, with board. (See 
Report of State Superintendent, 1877.) 

2 Wright: Historical Sketches of Plymouth, p. 280. 

3 Wyoming Historical Record, Vol. X, pp. 160, 184. 

4 Supra, p. 41. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 53 

following: "Our school books were the Bible and Webster's 
Spelling Book; one or two others were found in some schools for 
the reading classes. Grammar was hardly taught at all in any 
of them, and that little was confined almost entirely to com- 
mitting and reciting rules. Parsing was one of the occult 
sciences of my day; we had some few lessons in geography by 
question and answer, but no maps nor globes; as for blackboards, 
such a thing was not thought of until long after. Children's 
reading and picture books we had none ; the fables in Webster's 
spelling book came nearest to them. Arithmetic was hardly 
taught at all in the day schools. As a substitute there were 
some evening schools in most of the districts." 1 This repre- 
sents the average facilities of the schools at about the period 
in which the Pennsylvania settlements were made and enlarged ; 
and it is therefore, a general statement of the amount and kind 
of elementary education, more or less, to which the settlers 
had had access. It represents the standard toward which they 
would aim, if not one which, meager as it is, was in all cases 
attained. The Wyoming teacher quoted above (speaking of the 
early part of the nineteenth century) says "all were taught 
spelling, reading and writing. Grammar and history were 
taught to any who wished to study them, or who were advanced 
in the elementary branches. Webster's Spelling Book and the 
Dictionary were used; the New England Primer, the English 
Reader, Columbian Orator and American Preceptor were used 
as reading books. Daboll's, Bennett's and Pike's arithmetics 
were used. Lindley Murray's Grammar was generally in use 
until superseded by Kirkham's about 18.35. " 2 A historian of 
Wayne County mentions in addition to some of the above, 
Webster's Elements of Useful Knowledge, The Second and 
Third Parts, Woodbridge's and Morse's geographies. 3 Most of 
the above mentioned text-books are of New England, many 
of them of Connecticut origin. Daboll, author of the well- 
known arithmetic, was born in Connecticut, and his book for 
years held a prominent place. Caleb Bingham, author of "The 
Columbian Orator" and "The American Preceptor," was born 

1 Clark: Op. cit., pp. 218, 219. 

2 Wyoming Historical Record, Vol. V, pp. 1-3. 

3 Goodrich: History of Wayne County, pp. 393, 394. 



54 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

in the same state. Noah Webster was born in Hartford, and 
Jedediah Morse, author of the first geography published in 
America, was a native of Windham County, Connecticut. The 
Reverend William Woodbridge, author of a well-known geo- 
graphy and for several years a teacher in Salem, Wayne County, 
Pennsylvania, as above mentioned, and in Wilkes-Barre was a 
native of Massachusetts. Pike's arithmetic was published in 
Newburyport, Massachusetts, in 1788. The author was a gradu- 
ate of Harvard College. A review of these titles representing the 
subjects taught and the books used in the Wyoming schools 
shows that the influence of the mother state was strong in the 
younger settlement. The list of subjects represents, no doubt 
the maximum efficiency of the Wyoming schools in the early 
years of the nineteenth century, as well as the course of study 
of private schools and academies, rather than that of the com- 
mon schools of the elementary grade. But it was, after all, the 
teacher who in those days made his school and shaped the course 
of study according to his own equipment, thus leading his pupils 
along the path of knowledge which he himself had trodden. 
Some, perhaps a considerable number, of those who taught were 
competent to give instruction in the classics. A well-known 
teacher of the early days, Thomas Patterson, of Irish birth, 
taught the classics in Plymouth Academy, and is said to have 
urged upon his pupils the advantages of a college education. 1 
The elementary schools in their less ambitious forms, in the more 
thinly populated districts were probably no better than those 
of corresponding grade in Connecticut. Moreover in some 
settlements schools were not immediately established. As 
new townships were laid out in the latter years of the eighteenth 
century, in the midst of the hardships, uncertainties and dangers 
of the pioneer surroundings, there was little time for organized 
educational effort. The compulsory educational provision of 
Connecticut was by no means enforced or possible of enforce- 
ment. Many men and women grew up with only the most 
meager opportunities. It is to be borne in mind, however, 
that the Wyoming settlers had never been an isolated group. 
They were in constant and sympathetic association with the 
home state. New settlers were constantly arriving in the dis- 
1 Wyoming Historical Record, Vol. X, p. 161. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 55 

puted territory. These naturally brought with them the unim- 
paired and advancing standards of Connecticut. Evidence of 
this contact and influence has been shown in the text-books 
used, which were those of recent origin or general use at the time 
in New England. Henry Barnard taught for a time after his 
graduation from Yale in Wellsboro, in the present Tioga County, 
a close neighbor of the New England section. He is said to have 
remarked that the intellectual atmosphere and educational stir 
recalled to him the similar aspect of a New England town. 1 
Again it must not be forgotten that in New England the home 
was emphasized as the natural place for the earliest training and 
instruction of the child in knowledge of secular, as well as of 
moral and religious import. Children were not neglected in 
Wyoming even where schools were not immediately established. 
The school discipline of New England, effected by the rod, 
was practiced in Wyoming, as it was generally at that time. 
Several writers refer to its use, but this depended there as else- 
where largely on the native temper or conviction of the teacher. 
Only thoughtful or exceedingly gentle schoolmasters at that 
period refrained from that mode of attack upon the evil believed 
to be deeply rooted in the mind and heart of the child. 

Another custom imported from New England which made for 
the general intellectual advancement of the community, adults 
as well as children, was the "spelling-school," to which reference 
is made in Wyoming reminiscences. One teacher is said to have 
conducted a spelling-school at his residence on three evenings 
in the week. 2 This furnished not only actual instruction in a 
school art which was everywhere at that time in a rather pre- 
carious condition, but it also sharpened the school wits of those 
who attended and provided beside opportunity for social inter- 
course. "Singing schools" are also referred to in the accounts 
of some districts. 

The Sunday School, which in its origin in England and in our 
own state was closely related to secular instruction, appeared 
in the Wyoming region in its later, and as we view it today, its 
legitimate function, namely as an institution whose object is to 

1 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1896-97, Vol. I, 
p. 772. 

2 Wyoming Historical Record, Vol. IV, p. 4. 



56 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

care for the religious training of the child. As such it is not 
directly related to the subject of this discussion. Since the 
aims of these people in education from the beginning embodied 
the non-sectarian idea, the separate administration and support 
of church and school followed. Sunday Schools arose in Wyoming, 
and it is of interest to note that according to a county historian, 
previous to their organization, children were met by the office 
bearers in the church more or less frequently and instructed in the 
catechism and in religious truth. 1 

The absence of any public educational organization in Penn- 
sylvania at the time of the Revolution has been noted. The 
Constitution established by the General Convention at Philadel- 
phia in 1776 contained the following provision: "A school or 
schools shall be established in each county by the Legislature 
for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to 
the masters paid by the public as may enable them to instruct 
youth at low prices. And all useful learning shall be duly en- 
couraged and promoted in one or more universities." 2 In the 
Constitutional Convention of 1789-90, the committee reporting 
a draft of a proposed constitution submitted on December 21, 
1789 the following: "Article VIII, Section I. A school or 
schools shall be established in each county for the instruction 
of youth, and the State shall pay to the masters such salaries as 
shall enable them to teach at low prices. 

"II. The arts, sciences, and all useful learning shall be pro- 
moted in one or more universities. 

"III. Religious societies and corporate bodies shall be pro- 
tected in their rights, immunities and estates." 3 

On January 30, 1790, the first section of the eighth article 
being under consideration, it was moved by Mr. McKean, 
seconded by Mr. Findley, to add the following words to the said 
section: "And the poor gratis." A motion was then made by 
Mr. Pickering, seconded by Mr. Sitgreaves, to postpone the 
consideration of the said first section with the amendment pro- 
posed in order to introduce the following in lieu of the first and 
second section of the eighth article: "Knowledge generally 

1 History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, pp. 227, 228. 

2 Minutes of the Convention of 1789-90, p. 21. 

3 Ibid., p. 44. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 57 

diffused among the people being essential to the preservation 
of their rights, it shall be the duty of the Legislature to provide 
for the instruction of children and youth, by the establishment of 
such schools in the several counties throughout the common- 
wealth. And the arts, sciences and all useful learning shall be 
further promoted in one or more universities." The question 
on postponement was determined in the negative, as was also 
the previous motion of Mr. McKean to amend. 1 On February 
25, the eighth article being under consideration, it was moved by 
Mr. Hubley, seconded by Mr. Wilson to insert the following 
as the seventh article of the Constitution: 

"Section I. A school or schools shall be established in each 
county for the instruction of youth, and the state shall pay to 
the masters such salaries as shall enable them to teach at low 
prices. 

"Section II. The arts and sciences shall be promoted in one 
or more seminaries of learning. 

"Section III. Religious societies and corporate bodies shall be 
protected in their rights, privileges, immunities and estates." 2 

The following day this motion recurring, it was moved by 
Mr. McKean and seconded by Mr. Findley to insert at the end 
of the first section, "And the poor gratis." It was then moved 
by Mr. Pickering and seconded by Mr. Edwards to postpone 
consideration of the amendment in order to introduce the follow- 
ing: "The Legislature shall provide by law for the establish- 
ment of schools throughout the state in such manner that the 
poor may be taught gratis. " The question on postponement be- 
ing decided in the affirmative, a motion was made by Mr. Mc- 
Lene seconded by Mr. Lincoln to insert after "Legislature" 
the following: "As soon as conveniently may be." This was 
agreed to; the section as amended was adopted, and it was 
ordered that the three sections as agreed to be inserted as the 
seventh article of the proposed Constitution. 3 The article as 
ultimately adopted and approved in the Convention on Septem- 
ber 2, 1790, was as follows: 

"Section I. The legislature shall, as soon as conveniently may 

1 Minutes of the Grand Committee of the Whole Convention, pp. 75, 76. 

2 Minutes of the Convention, p. 140. 

3 Ibid., p. 144. 



58 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

be, provide, by law, for the establishment of schools throughout 
the state in such manner that the poor may be taught gratis. 

" Section II. The arts and sciences shall be promoted in one or 
more seminaries of learning. 

"Section III. The rights, privileges, immunities and estates 
of religious societies and corporate bodies shall remain, as if the 
constitution of this state had not been altered or amended." 

Timothy Pickering was a delegate to the Convention from the 
newly-established Luzerne County. He was a native of Mass- 
achusetts, where common schools had long been accepted as part 
of the existing order. He was an ardent lover of liberty and 
thoroughly democratic in his convictions. Education was no 
incidental concern in his life; he had already demonstrated his 
active and vital interest in the educational needs of the young. 1 
The common school was a well-established idea in Luzerne 
County, where he was now a property owner and resident. His 
special interest in the Convention was the desire to insert in the 
Constitution a provision which should secure the opportunity for 
education to all the people. 2 It may well be believed that Mr. 
Pickering and his colleagues supposed that they were laying the 
foundations of a system of free common schools, 3 but the public 
opinion of the state was not yet ready to accept this idea. For 
years following the adoption of the Constitution, charitable 
enterprise and legislation endeavored to secure to those unable 
to pay for it the educational advantages provided for in that 
document. 4 The subject of public education formed the theme 
of many gubernatorial messages. The Act of 1809 5 requiring 
parents unable to pay for the education of their children to 
make public acknowledgment of their poverty and to send 
them to school branded as paupers was generally admitted to 
be a dead letter, and to have failed of its purpose. In the Wy- 
oming region it is probable that the "poor schools" common in 

1 Pickering and Upham: Life of Timothy Pickering, Vol. II, pp. 165-168, 
531. 532. 

2 Ibid., Vol. II, p. 433. 

3 Wickersham : Op. cit., p. 259. Cf. the citation from Governor Wolf's 
message of December, 1834, below. 

4 Laws of Pennsylvania, 1802, March 1; P. L. 76. 1804, March 19; 
P. L., 298. 

5 Smith's Laws, Vol. V, p. 73. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 59 

the older communities where social distinctions had become 
significant, if indeed they were not so from the beginning, were 
never in vogue. The law everywhere unpopular with those for 
whose benefit it was enacted, was most of all so in this demo- 
cratic community. 1 The Wyoming Herald of November 23, 
1 82 1, quotes from the National Intelligencer an article entitled 
"Yankee Notions." "A Massachusetts paper observes 'there 
is not a native that can not read and write ; every child is educat- 
ed ; every child is entitled to education as a right. The rich tax 
themselves to educate the poor. By her constitution and laws 
schools must be everywhere supported, enough to educate her 
whole population.' We wish such notions as these were pre- 
valent in other states." The Wyoming Republican of Novem- 
ber 26, (after the passage of the law of 1834) said: "The Act of 
April 4, 1809, does not provide for the establishment of schools at 
all. A man must go before the assessor and prove himself a 
pauper, and should this be questioned, again he must present 
himself before the County Commissioner to prove the truth of 
his former statement. Then his child might go to school, to 
be known as a poor child, schooled at the public expense and 
pointed at as such by his schoolmates .... Such humiliation 
of God's creatures was never contemplated by the framers of 
the Constitution." The "common schools" established by the 
early settlers continued to be the general practice of this region 
until 1834, when the state law establishing a system of free 
public schools was enacted and adopted by the people of these 
counties. 2 In the meantime further attempts at legislation 
had been made by the Assembly in 1824 3 (this law was repealed 
in two years 4 ) and in 1831 when a Common School Fund was 
established. 5 These successive enactments prepared the way 

1 Note: For ten years after 1824, only about three thousand five hundred 
dollars were paid by Luzerne County for the education of the poor. Pearce: 
Annals of Luzerne County, p. 26. In Wayne County in 1810 the assessors 
returned twenty-seven poor children, in 181 1 twenty-nine, in 1834 two hundred 
and thirty- five. It is not known how thoroughly the law was executed. 
The entire amount spent in the county during the operation of the law was 
apparently ten thousand dollars. State Report, 1877, p. 587. 

2 U. S. Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 1893-94, Vol. I, 
p. 668. 

3 1824, March 29; P. L., 137. 

4 1826, February 20; P. L., 52. 

5 1831, April 2; P. L., 385. 



60 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

for the last stages of the conflict which resulted in the passage 
in 1834, of a law establishing "a general system of education by 
Common Schools." "No other subject," says Wickersham, 
"was ever debated with so much heat and bitterness." 1 New 
England energy and leadership did good service at this time in 
the cause of education. Samuel Breck, a native of Massachu- 
setts and a resident of Philadelphia, had accepted a seat in the 
Senate for the purpose of securing the passage of a law establish- 
ing a system of common schools. He was Chairman of a Joint 
Committee of the two Houses to prepare a law to this end. 
Contemporary newspaper comments show how bitter was the 
struggle. Poulson's Daily Advertiser of November 24, 1834, in 
reporting the result of the election in the various townships, 
said : " It is now ascertained that the friends of free schools have 
triumphed over the combined efforts of selfishness, ignorance 
and demagogism in this Commonwealth. The triumph is a 
signal one and more glorious than all the party triumphs in this 
State since the adoption of the Constitution." The Luzerne 
County papers fought valiantly for common schools. The 
Republican Farmer and Democratic Journal of Wilkes-Barre on 
September 18, 1833, contained an article by a correspondent 
signing himself "A Citizen of Luzerne." Referring at some 
length to recently suggested school plans, he concludes: "I 
am still unchanged in my opinion, that a very important im- 
provement can be made in our Common Schools, and I hope 
soon to have the pleasure of hearing that Luzerne County has 
arisen in her strength to devise some general system to carry it 
all over the country, and be hailed with delight by every lover of 
education." The Wyoming Republican (called after January, 
1835, The Republican and Herald) during 1834, 1835 and 1836, 
the years of conflict, repeatedly in its columns drove home the 
doctrine of free schools for rich and poor alike, — the common 
school. On January 29, 1834, a Connecticut paper was quoted, 
referring to a statement in the recent message of Governor 
Wolf as to the number of uninstructed children in the State, 
"Who in New England would have believed that in the old, 
rich and prosperous state of Pennsylvania nearly one hundred 
thousand more children than there are in the State of Connecticut 
1 Op. cit., p. 318. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 6i 

are entirely uninstructed and growing up in ignorance, and that 
the state never appropriated a dollar for the intellectual improve- 
ment of its youth?" On July 16, 1834, the same paper said of 
the School Law : " One of the most important laws enacted in this 
State is the one providing for a general system of education, 
by common schools. In this law every citizen of the State is 
interested." The Wyoming Republican of October 29, 1834, 
said "At the recent election in many sections of this State the 
School Bill was made a political question. We were humiliated 
to mark some tickets headed 'No School.' This political watch- 
word indicates a spirit which we blush to find within our bor- 
ders. " Similar quotations from Luzerne County journals 
could be multiplied; but a sufficient number has already been 
included to demonstrate the undoubted attitude of that section 
to the new educational enactment of the State. 

Under the provisions of the law of 1834 the school districts 
in each county were to elect directors, and subsequently a dele- 
gate from each school district was to attend with the county 
commissioners a meeting to decide whether the tax should be 
levied for the support of schools. Districts voting against the 
county tax were to receive nothing from the state, such dis- 
tricts being allowed to educate their poor under the Act of 1809. 1 

The results of the election showed that in the western, north- 
ern and some of the middle counties there was no opposition. 
In the middle counties the opposition was most formidable, but 
even in these a portion of the townships accepted the law, with the 
exception of Lebanon, in which opposition Directors were elected 
in every township. 2 In the New England counties a heavy vote 
was cast in favor of the new system. In Luzerne County, 
consisting of thirty-one districts, twenty-three accepted the law, 
three rejected it, and five were not represented. In Susquehanna, 
consisting of twenty- two districts, twenty-one accepted, one 
made no return. In Wayne, having sixteen districts, thirteen 
accepted, one rejected, one was not represented, and one made no 
return. In Pike, with nine districts, six accepted, three were 
not represented. In Bradford, with twenty-nine districts, 
twenty-three accepted, four were not represented, and two made 

1 1834, A P r il T ; P- L -> 170. 

2 Wyoming Republican, October 15, 1834. 



62 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

no return. In Potter, of fifteen districts, eleven accepted, four 
were not represented. In the six counties, therefore, represent- 
ing at that time the bulk of the New England population (Lack- 
awanna and Wyoming had not been erected in 1834) of one 
hundred and twenty-two districts, ninety-seven, or more than 
seventy-nine per cent, accepted the law. A comparison of 
these figures with the returns made by the counties in the older 
portion of the state, Chester, Delaware, Berks, Bucks, Lancaster 
and Montgomery, is interesting. (Philadelphia had already 
been provided for by the Act of 1818. 1 ) Of one hundred and 
ninety-one districts in these counties only sixty, or something 
more than thirty-one per cent, accepted the law, while of the one 
hundred and thirty-one remaining, eighty-nine rejected it, and 
forty- two were not represented, or made no return. 2 In Wilkes- 
Barre, when the directors assembled in the November following 
the election, as instructed by Act of Assembly, they resolved 
to levy a school tax equal to double the sum appropriated by 
the state for school purposes. 3 

In his message to the Legislature at the opening of the session 
of 1834-35 Governor Wolf in commenting upon the passage of 
the law during the previous session made the following significant 
statement: "At the last session of the Legislature an act was 
passed for establishing a general system of education by com- 
mon schools throughout the Commonwealth, in compliance with 
a constitutional provision which until then, although not en- 
tirely disregarded, had never been carried into effect in the man- 
ner intended by the members of the convention to whose sagacity 
and profound political wisdom we are indebted for the present 
excellent Constitution of our state .... This may be emphati- 
cally pronounced to be a measure belonging to the era of seven- 
teen hundred and ninety, and not to that of eighteen hundred 
and thirty-four. To insist that it emanated either from the 
Executive or the Legislature, however desirable it might be 
to appropriate the proud distinction of being its progenitor, 
is an entire fallacy. Such a monument of imperishable fame 
was not reserved for the men of modern times, — it belongs to 

1 1818; March 3; P. L., 124. 

2 Wickersham: Op. cit., p. 322. 

3 Wyoming Republican, November 12, 1834. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 63 

the statesmen of by-gone days. To the patriots who formed 
the constitution under which we live and under which we have 
been pre-eminently prosperous and happy belongs the proud 
trophy, it is to them we are indebted for this wholesome meas- 
ure." 1 

The struggle was not ended, however, by the law of 1834. 
The law did not represent the public opinion of the state. The 
question was agitated the next year in the state and in the Legis- 
lature. The repeal of the law was proposed and the re-enact- 
ment of that of 1809. Numerous petitions for repeal or modifi- 
cation of the law were sent to the Legislature, and others were 
sent remonstrating against the repeal. 2 Mr. Almon H. Read 
represented in the Senate the eleventh district, composed of 
Bradford, Susquehanna and Tioga counties, and he strove to 
preserve the common school system for his own district and for 
Luzerne. The New England section was resolved to retain the 
school law. The Harrisburg correspondent of Poulson's Daily 
Advertiser of March 20, 1835, wrote: "The Senate agreed on 
second reading to repeal the school law of last session; a stren- 
uous exertion was made by Mr. Read of Susquehanna to have 
the counties of Luzerne, Susquehanna, Bradford and Tioga 
exempted from the repeal, but a majority of our enlightened 
Senators were determined that the constituencies of other 
Senators should not enjoy the advantage of what they termed 
an aristocratic law, though they earnestly desired it. Our 
Jack Cades seemed determined to destroy every vestige of a 
general and enlightened system of education. " The same writer 
had asserted that one-fourth of the adult population of Penn- 
sylvania were unable to write their names. "By way of con- 
trast," said the Wyoming Republican and Herald, "how does 
this matter stand in Connecticut? Chief Justice Reeves of 
that state says that during twenty-seven years of professional 
practice every one of his clients could write his name." 3 Once 
more Pennsylvania was indebted for educational leadership to 
New England, and this time the forces on the side of the common 
school were marshalled by Thaddeus Stevens. A law was 

1 Journal of the Senate of Pennsylvania, 1834-35, pp. 18-20. 

2 Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives for 1834-35. 

3 Wyoming Republican and Herald, April 15, 1835. 



64 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

finally enacted, and approved April 15, 1835, which established 
permanently the free common school in the state. 1 The law 
of 1836, "An Act to consolidate and amend the several acts 
relative to a general system of education by common schools," 
finally shaped the educational policy of the state. 2 

The long-established practice of the Wyoming district merged 
easily into the new system, the financial basis having already 
been laid. At a meeting of School Delegates from different 
townships of the County of Luzerne, held on May 27, 1835, it 
was resolved that a tax be authorized in the county of three 
thousand dollars, and if that sum should be found insufficient 
to entitle the county to the State appropriation, such a sum 
should be levied as would be double the amount of such ap- 
propriation by the State. It was also resolved that a form of 
Certificate be used in the different districts of the county: 
"The Undersigned School Directors of Dis- 
trict hereby certify that we have examined 

an d nn d to be of good moral character and qualified to 

teach Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, " 3 

By the law of 183 1 the state had begun the creation of a fund for 
the support of schools. School funds had long been established 
in Wyoming by the lease or sale of the lands set apart by the 
Susquehanna Company in the various townships. These were 
known as the "Proprietors' Funds." In consequence of the 
early lease or sale of these tracts only small sums had been 
realized in many cases from lands which at this date would have 
yielded large amounts. Under the Act of 1799 certificates had 
been issued by the Commissioners to the School Committees for 
the time being for such lots as remained in trust for the use of 
the proprietors of the townships. As these Committees had 
from time to time sold or let upon leases for a long term of years 
large parts of the lots, reserving the rents for the use of the pro- 
prietors, and since they were not vested with the legal titles, 
these sales and leases were not valid. Moreover, rents and dues 
had increased but they could not be recovered without legal 
authority. The legislature therefore passed an Act on April 2, 

1 1835, April 15; P. L., 365. 
2 1836, June 13; P. L., 525- 
s Wyoming Republican and Herald, June 24, 1835. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 65 

1 83 1, incorporating the trustees of the township and borough 
of Wilkes-Barre, those of the township of Plymouth and of 
Hanover, and providing for the election in each township of 
three persons to be called "proprietors," to constitute a body 
corporate and politic. 1 On April 14, 1835, a supplement to 
the above Act was approved, extending its provisions to the 
township and proprietors of Providence. 2 "Had the govern- 
ment of Pennsylvania made similar provision for each township 
in the Commonwealth," says a Wyoming writer in 1830, "its 
advantages, judging from all experience, and particularly from 
the Connecticut system of Common School support from which 
the original settlers in Kingston took the hint, would have been 
invaluable. The day is past for this species of provision; but 
it is believed if Pennsylvania prosecutes and completes her 
system of internal improvement, the time is not far distant 
when its income will be abundantly sufficient to extinguish the 
debt incurred, and make ample provision for the Common 
School education of every child in this Commonwealth." 3 
These words embodied a prophecy and a hope which were des- 
tined to a speedy fulfilment, when a few years later the great 
State made up of the descendants of so many peoples delivered 
to her children the charter of their democracy in education, 
and sealed to the childhood of the Commonwealth forever the 
inestimable privileges of the common school. 

1 1831, April 2; P. L., 367. 

2 1835, April 14; P. L., 274. 

3 Chapman: Op. cit., Appendix, pp. 166, 189. 



APPENDIX 

A. In volume XIII, p. in, of the Proceedings and Collections 
of the Wyoming Historical and Geological Society Mr. Harvey 
writes: "Colonel Pickering, writing to his brother in November, 
1787, with respect to certain disturbances in Wyoming said : 'The 
principal conspirators (in a plan to erect a new state in the 
Wyoming region and adjacent country of New York) lived in 
the States of Connecticut and New York. Their plot was so far 
advanced that Major (William) Judd, a Connecticut lawyer, had 
actually drawn up a Constitution for their intended new State, 
which was to be called Westmoreland, the name of the Wyoming 
district when a county under Connecticut jurisdiction.' " 

B. The Susquehanna Democrat for December 4, 1812, con- 
tained the following announcement: "The Trustees and Man- 
agers of the Wilkes-Barre Academy inform the public that the 
Superintendence of that institution is now intrusted to Mr. 
Jennison under a permanent engagement for the term of three 
years at least. Scholars are instructed in all or any of the fol- 
lowing branches: viz., Spelling, Reading, Penmanship, Book-keep- 
ing, Arithmetic, English Grammar, in its various parts, Geography 
and the use of the Globes, History, Composition, the Latin and 
Greek languages in all their respective classical authors, Rhetorick, 
Logic, Mathematicks in all the different branches, including 
Natural Philosophy and Astronomy; and generally all the 
branches of Science which are taught in any of the Academies 
of our country. The studies of scholars, if requested, will 
be so calculated as to prepare them for admission into any 
college which may be desired, or the pupils by a longer contin- 
uance at the Academy may obtain the substance of a complete 
scientific education." 

C. The Susquehanna Democrat for May 7, 1813, contained 
the following: Mr. and Miss Woodbridge from Philadelphia 
announce that a Boarding and Day School is opened in Wilkes- 
Barre for the instruction of Young Ladies in the following 
branches of Education: Writing, Grammar, Letter- Writing and 

66 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 67 

Composition, Arithmetic, with its ready application to bills 
and accounts, Geography with the use of the Globes and Maps. 
A general course of useful Science and Polite Literature, includ- 
ing Chronology and History, domestic, ancient and modern, 
Rhetoric and Poetry, the Elements of Natural Philosophy, 
Astronomy, Natural History, Chemistry, Moral Philosophy, 
explaining the powers, operations and improvements of the 
mind, the relations, virtues and duties of humanity. "The 
proper study of Mankind is Man." 

The whole will be reviewed, exemplified and explained by a 
course of Lectures, calculated to render the progress of the Scho- 
lars and the review of Studies entertaining and useful .... A 
Committee of monthly visitation of the School and general 
observation of the manners and morals of the Scholars will be 
appointed from the Parents, Guardians and respectable inhabi- 
tants of Wilkes-Barre. 

We, the undersigned, certify that the above Rev. William 
Woodbridge has been employed as Principal in a Young Ladies' 
Academy for many years past, that he has resided and taught 
with honor to himself and great improvement to his pupils, 
and in testimony of our confidence in him as the able and faith- 
ful Instructor we propose to place our Daughters under his care 
and tuition in his Boarding School. 

Lord Butler 
Rosewell Welles 
Ebenezer Bowman 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

I. Histories and Historical Collections Relating to the 
Wyoming Valley 

A . Histories 

Chapman, I. A. A Sketch of the history of Wyoming, 1818. 
To which is added an Appendix containing a statistical 
account of the Valley and adjacent country. By a Gentle- 
man of Wilkes-Barre. Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1830. 
Printed and published by Sharp D. Lewis. 

(This is the earliest history of Wyoming. In the Preface, July 18, 1818, 
the author states that he had the testimony of living actors in many events 
described, in addition to documentary evidence. A note by the publisher 
in 1830 states that after the receipt of the manuscript journals which had been 
kept by participants in some of the scenes recorded came into his possession, 
which furnished corrections and corroborations of the former account.) 

Miner, C. History of Wyoming in a series of letters from 
Charles Miner to his Son, William Penn Miner, Esq., of 
Philadelphia. Philadelphia, J. Cressy, 1845. 

(This history was derived from the personal narratives of numerous eye- 
witnesses and participants in the events carefully compared; also from public 
documents and records and private papers. The author had access to a 
portion of the "Westmoreland Records." Mr. Harvey says that this history 
is considered "the most copious, complete and authentic work on the subject. ") 

Peck, G. Wyoming, its history, stirring incidents and romantic 
adventures, with illustrations. New York, Harper, 1858. 
(Contains narratives and reminiscences from various individuals.) 

Wright, H. B. Historical Sketches of Plymouth, Luzerne 
County, Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, T. B. Peterson, 1873. 

Goodrich, P. G. History of Wayne County, Pennsylvania. 

Honesdale, Penna., Haines and Beardsley, 1880. 
History of Luzerne, Lackawanna and Wyoming Counties, 

Pennsylvania. With illustrations and biographical sketches 

of some of their prominent men and pioneers. New York, 

Mansell, 1880. 

(Dr. Horace E. Hayden, secretary of the Wyoming Historical and Geologi- 
cal Society has commended the purely historical parts of the work, and espec- 

68 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 69 

ially the history of the towns. See manuscript note in the copy in the Mer- 
cantile Library, Philadelphia.) 

Harvey, O. J. A History of Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, 
Pennsylvania from its first beginnings to the present time, 
including chapters of newly-discovered early Wyoming 
Valley history, together with many biographical sketches 
and much genealogical material. Illustrated with many 
portraits, maps, fac-similes, original drawings and con- 
temporary views. 3 v. Wilkes-Barre, Reeder Press, 1909. 
(Vols. 1 and 2 have been issued.) 
(Mr. Harvey's work is an exhaustive and scholarly study based on docu- 
ments, archives, public and private contemporary records, not previously 
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contains a description of the sources whence the history has been drawn (pp. 
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B. Historical Collections 

Proceedings and Collections of the Wyoming Historical and 
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1858-1914. 

The Historical Record of Wyoming Valley, vols. 1-14, 1886-1908. 
(Originally) a monthly publication devoted principally 
to the early history of Wyoming Valley, with notes and 
queries, biographical, antiquarian, genealogical. Edited 
by F. C. Johnson, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 

(The contents of these volumes originally appeared in the Daily Record of 
Wilkes-Barre, of which the late Dr. Johnson was editor, as a weekly column 
of historical data relating to the early days and people of Wyoming. The 
volumes were published at first monthly, later quarterly, and afterward at 
longer intervals.) 

II. Histories of Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and 
Other Historical Works 

Clark, G. L. A history of Connecticut, its people and in- 
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New York, Putnam, 1914. 

Eggleston, E. The Transit of Civilization from England to 
America in the seventeenth century. New York, Apple- 
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70 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

Egle, W. H. History of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
civil, political and military, from its earliest settlement to 
the present time, including historical descriptions of each 
county in the state, their towns, and industrial resources. 
3d edition revised and corrected. Philadelphia, E. M. 
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(The work contains a sketch of the history of the state, and in separate 
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Fisher, S. G. The Making of Pennsylvania. An analysis of the 
elements of the population and the formative influences of the 
greatest of the American states. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 
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Fiske, J. The Beginnings of New England, or the Puritan 
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Boston, Houghton, c. 1889. 

Fiske, J. The Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. 2 v. 
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Johnston, A. Connecticut, a study of a commonwealth- 
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H. E. Scudder. Boston, Houghton, 1890. 

(An account of the development of the state from the earliest time to the 
Civil War. An Appendix contains the Constitution of 1639.) 

Larned, E. D. A history of Windham County, Connecticut, 
2 v. Vol. 1, 1600-1760. Vol. 2, 1760-1880. Worcester, 
Massachusetts, Author, 1874. 

McMaster, J. B. History of the People of the United States, 
8 v. New York, Appleton, 1883-1913. 

Trumbull, B. A complete history of Connecticut, civil and 
ecclesiastical from the emigration of its first planters from 
England in the year 1630 to the year 1764 and to the close 
of the Indian Wars. 2 vols. Vol. 1 has an "Appendix 
containing the original patent of New England never be- 
fore published in America." New Haven, Maltby, 
Goldsmith and Company and Samuel Wadsworth, 181 8. 

III. State Records, Documents, Laws, Legal Papers 

Charter to William Penn and Laws of the Province of Penn- 
sylvania passed between the years 1682 and 1700. Pre- 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 71 

ceded by the Duke of York's laws in force from the year 1676 
to the year 1682. With an appendix containing laws re- 
lating to the organization of the provincial courts and 
historical matter. Published under the direction of John 
Blair Linn, Secretary to the Commonwealth. Compiled 
and edited by George Staughton, Benjamin M. Mead, 
Thomas McCamant, Harrisburg, 1879. 

Colonial Records. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Penn- 
sylvania from the organization to the termination of the 
Proprietary Government. Published by the State, Harris- 
burg, 1852. Vol. 10. 

Hoyt, H. M. Brief of a Title in the Seventeen Townships in 
the County of Luzerne; a syllabus of the controversy 
between Connecticut and Pennsylvania. Harrisburg, Mis- 
cellaneous Publications of the Historical Society of Penn- 
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Journals of the Senate and House of Representatives of Penn- 
sylvania, 1834-35. Harrisburg, Printed by Welsh and 
Patterson. 

Liberty Bell Leaflets, No. 3 Penn's Frame of Government of 
1682 and Privileges and Concessions of 1701. Edited by 
M. G. Brumbaugh and J. S. Walton. Philadelphia, Christo- 
pher Sower, 1898. 

Minutes of the Convention of the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylvania which commenced at Philadelphia on Tuesday the 
twenty-fourth day of November in the year of our Lord 
one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine for the purpose 
of reviewing and if they see occasion altering and amending 
the Constitution of the State. Philadelphia, Zachariah 
Poulson, 1789. 

Minutes of the Grand Committee of the Whole Convention of 
the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania which commenced at 
Philadelphia on the twenty-fourth day of November in the 
year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty- 
nine for the purpose of reviewing and if they see occasion 
altering and amending the Constitution of this State. 
Philadelphia, Zachariah Poulson, 1790. 

Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, Vol. 18. (Including the 
records of the Susquehanna Company also "An Examination 



72 The Contribution of Connecticut to the 

of the Connecticut Claim to Lands in Pennsylvania," 1774. 

Attributed to Rev. William Smith, D. D., pp. 125-214.) 
Smith's Laws of Pennsylvania, Vol. Ill, V. and Pamphlet 

Laws, 1801-3, 1803-4, 1810-12, 1823-24, 1825-26, 1830-31, 

1834-35, 1835-36. 
Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801. Compiled 

under the authority of the act of May 19, 1887, by James F. 

Mitchell and Henry Flanders, Commissioners. C. M. 

Busch, State printer, 1896. Vols. 2, 3, 4. 

IV. Educational History 
A . General and Special Histories and Studies. 

Boone, R. G. Education in the United States. Its history 
from the earliest settlements. New York, Appleton, 1890. 

Brown, E. E. The Making of our Middle Schools. An 
account of the development of secondary education in the 
United States. 3d edition, New York, Longmans, 1910. 

Clews, E. W. Educational legislation and administration of the 
colonial governments. New York, Columbia University, 
1899. 

Dexter, E. G. A History of Education in the United States. 
New York, Macmillan, 1904. 

Graves, F. P. A History of Education in Modern Times. 
New York, Macmillan, 1914. 

Kilpatrick, W. H. The Dutch Schools of New Netherland 
and Colonial New York. (U. S. Bureau of Education, 
Bulletin, 1912. No. 12, Whole No. 483.) 

Leach, F. English Schools at the Reformation, 1546-8. West- 
minster, Arnold Constable, 1896. 

Martin, G. H. The Evolution of the Massachusetts Public 
School System. A historical sketch. New York, Apple- 
ton, 1908. 

Monroe, P. A Text Book in the History of Education. New 
York, Macmillan, 1905. 

Montgomery, T. H. A History of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania from its foundation to 1770. Philadelphia, Jacobs, 
1900. 

Painter, F. V. N. Luther on Education, including a trans- 
lation of his two most important educational treatises. 
Philadelphia, Lutheran Publication Society, 1883. 



Common School System of Pennsylvania 73 

Steiner, B. C. The History of Education in Connecticut. 
(U. S. Bureau of Education, Circular of Information, No. 2, 
1893. Whole No. 193.) 

Weber, S. E. The Charity School Movement in Colonial 
Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, G. T. Lasher, 1905. 

Wickersham, J. P. A History of Education in Pennsylvania, 
private and public, elementary and higher from the time the 
Swedes settled on the Delaware to the present day. Lan- 
caster, Pennsylvania, Inquirer Publishing Company, 1886. 

B. Educational Reports and Collections 

Barnard, H. American Journal of Education. Vols. 1,4, 16, 
24. 

Monroe, P. (Editor). A Cyclopaedia of Education. 5 vols. 
New York, Macmillan, 1911-1913. 

Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction of the Common- 
wealth of Pennsylvania for the year ending June 1, 1877. 
Harrisburg, 1878. 

United States Bureau of Education, Report of Commissioner, 
i892-'93, 1893-94, i894-'95> 1896-97- 

V. Biography 

Clarkson, T. Memoirs of the public and private life of Wil- 
liam Penn, with a preface by W. E. Forster. New ed. 
London, Gilpin, 1849. 

Pickering, Octavius, and Upham, C. W. Life of Timothy 
Pickering. 4V. Boston, Little, 1867-73. 

VI. Manuscripts and Newspapers 

Miscellaneous Manuscripts pertaining to Northampton County, 
Pennsylvania, 1 727-1 758. (In the Historical Society of 
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.) 

Volume of Newspaper Clippings of Luzerne County, Pennsyl- 
vania. (In the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Phila- 
delphia.) 

The Luzerne Federalist and Susquehanna Intelligencer. Printed 
by Charles Miner at Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1802. 

The Susquehanna Democrat. Published by Samuel Maffet 
in Wilkes-Barre, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. 18 12, 
1813. 



74 The Contribution of Connecticut 

Wyoming Herald, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 1821. 
Republican Farmer and Democratic Journal. Printed and 

published by Benjamin A. Bidlack and John Atherholt, 

Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 1833. 
Wyoming Republican, from 1835 Wyoming Republican and 

Herald. Published every Wednesday morning by Sharp 

D. Lewis in Kingston, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. 

1834, 1835, 1836. 
Poulson's Daily Advertiser. Philadelphia. 1834,1835. 



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